Big Bad Wannabe: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Azula:''' [[BreakingBreak SpeechThem by Talking|I can see your whole history in your eyes. You were born with nothing, so you've had to struggle, connive, and claw your way to power. But true power, the divine right to rule, is something you're born with. The fact is, they don't know which one of us is going to be sitting on that throne, and which one is going to be bowing down. But I know, and you know.]] (''sits on the throne'') ''Well?''<br />

'''Long Feng:'''....(''kneels before Azula'') [[Out-Gambitted|You've beaten me at my own game.]]<br />

'''Azula:''' Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player.|''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''}}

The [['''Big Bad Wannabe]]''' is a villain who is seen as a significant threat but can't back it up when it comes to the crunch. The absolute level of menace varies widely, from an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]] having a good day, to a villain who ''could'' legitimately be [[Big Bad]] if the real [[Big Bad]] wasn't even more [[Badass]] than they are, but within a story they are (initially) presented as a big deal.

* Hodi Jones from ''[[One Piece]]'' may be the [[Big Bad]] of the Fishman Island arc, but compared to the post-[[Time Skip]] Straw Hats, even with [[Came Back Strong|his steroid abuse]], he's nothing but fodder. It's particularly telling that he's the only [[Big Bad]] of an arc who was beaten ''before'' [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|his minions]]. With, he's the most dangerous member of the three-man [[Big Bad Ensemble]] in that same arc, is the one whose minions actually fight with the Straw Hats, and came close to commiting genocide against his own people (twice, in fact). If he wasn't so hopelessly outmatched, he ''would'' have been the [[Big Bad]], and he was at least stronger than everyone who ''wasn't'' a Straw Hat.

* Gates from ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]! The Second Raid'', who spends the entire season being set up as the [[Big Bad]]. In the climax, he kills a henchman of another villain and defeats Mao... And then Sousuke enters the arena and kills both Gates and his [[Elite Mook|Elite Mooks]]s in a matter of minutes.

* In the ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind]]'' anime, Kurotowa pulls the most half-assed attempt at this ever. When Kushana is missing and presumed dead, he plans to take command from her and use the Giant Warrior to carve out a position for himself -- orhimself—or even conquer the world, it's really not clear just where his ambition would end. Then, when she turns up alive, he just quietly gives up on this plan, complaining that his chance is gone now. It's even more jarring if you read the manga first, as there he shoots up to [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]] territory in record time.

** ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' has two examples in [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Muruta Azrael]] and [[General Ripper|Patrick Zala.]] The latter's an [[Insane Admiral]] who becomes [[President Evil]] of ZAFT and [[Final Solution|wants to wipe out all the]] [[Puny Earthlings|Naturals]] in order to save the [[Designer Babies|Coordinators]]. The former's a [[The Sociopath|sociopathic]] politician who heads up [[Fantastic Racism|Blue Cosmos]] and wants to [[Nuke'Em|nuke]] every [[Born Winner|Coordinator]] [[Final Solution|out of existence]] based on hatred and [[Driven by Envy|envy]]. Both are smart, competent bad guys with the resources to be legitimate threats on their own. It's just that they're also the [[Unwitting Pawn|Unwitting Pawns]]s of the ''true'' [[Big Bad]], [[Omnicidal Maniac]] [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Rau Le Creuset]] who's using them both in an attempt to trigger [[The End of the World as We Know It]].

* Jellal from ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' is built from his first appearance as the biggest threat the main protagonists have to face: he infiltrates one of the world's most influential ruling bodies so he can perfect a spell necessary to bring the series' established [[Bigger Bad]] Zeref [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]]. Then it turns out that [[The Man Behind the Man|he's being manipulated by]] {{spoiler|[[The Man Behind the Man|his underling Ultear]]}}, who is really [[The Dragon]] of Hades, who knows that {{spoiler|Zeref is [[Not Quite Dead]]. Then ''he'' gets upstaged by Zeref himself}}.

== ComicbooksComic Books ==

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'': Anti-Sonic, Sonic's [[Evil Twin]] from [[Mirror Universe|Moebius]], was this for a ''long'' time, as he liked to talk tough, only to be pushed around by the other villains and get beat up easily by the heroes (hell, a pre-[[Character Development]] [[Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys|Antoine]] once knocked him out cold. ''By accident.''). Then, a dose of Chaos energy directly from the Master Emerald transformed him into Scourge, granting him [[Took a Level Inin Badass|several dozen levels of badass]] and making him one of the series' most powerful (and [[Ensemble Darkhorse|popular]]) villains. He's still not on the level of [[Arch Enemy|Dr. Eggman]] or [[Complete Monster|Finitevus]], but he's definitely a credible solo threat these days.

== Fan FictionWorks ==

* The ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' fanfic "''[[Partially Kissed Hero"]]'' by [[Jared Ornstead|Perfect Lionheart]] statedstates that Severus Snape's real reason to hate James Potter was that all of James bullying him during school time was what prevented Snape from being taken seriously enough to become a Dark Lord on his own right.

* ''[[Queen of All Oni]]'' has [[Evil Sorcerer|Lung]], Daolon Wong's former [[Bastard Understudy|apprentice]], who views himself as the only one powerful and skilled enough to take Wong's place as the [[The Archmage|Darkest Wizard]]. However, his master plan -- toplan—to force Jade, and by extension her Shadowkhan, into his service -- wasservice—was too simple minded, and fell apart rather easily. More importantly, the fact that his only response to said plan failing was to not acknowledge that fact and keep bludgeoning ahead, and that his reaction to Jade's minions showing up was to slip into a [[Villainous BSOD]] bordering on a full-scale [[Villainous Breakdown|breakdown]]... yeah, he's really not in Wong's league. {{spoiler|And then Jade's minions kill him, so he's ''definitely'' never going to make [[Big Bad]].}}

* Draco Malfoy of the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' series. For the first five books he acts basically like a pro-Voldemort fanboy [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis]] to Harry, more of an annoyance than a threat. Then, when ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and Thethe Half-Blood Prince (novel)|Half-Blood Prince]]'' comes along, he's starts actively working for Voldemort... and he's really not able to keep up the level of evil required of him.

*** To hammer in how pathetic Draco's attempts at villainy are, for most of ''Half-Blood Prince'' he tries coming up with plans to aid the Death Eaters, and they end up failing simply because of his stupidity. His mother was in fact terrified of him joining up because she knew he was in ''way'' over his head. Dumbledore infers that Voldemort only let Draco join the Death Eaters to punish Draco'shis father's failures.

** Also Draco's dad, Lucius. Lucius is a very smooth operator, and there's nothing he won't stoop to in order to cement his family's influence, and in his first few appearances he's treated as someone ''very'' dangerous- but when Voldemort is resurrected, Lucius is truly revealed for the [[Smug Snake]] he is in comparison to [[Complete Monster|his revived boss]]. By ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (novel)|Deathly Hallows]]'', he's almost a complete nonentity.

* [[Evil Sorcerer|Saruman]] from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' is by all means a dangerous villain, and most likely could have [[The Starscream|supplanted Sauron]] as [[Big Bad]] had he managed to get his hands on [[Artifact of Doom|the Ring]]- but as he never did, he got stuck solidly in this trope instead.

* In The Russian adaptation of "The Shadow" by E. Schwartz, the titular [[Living Shadow]] is this. After successfully becoming king ,he gets played around by his ministers {{spoiler|and then dethroned}}

* Several examples in the ''[[Codex Alera]]'', considering the [[Big Bad Ensemble]] and [[Gambit Pileup]] the series has going on. [[Evil Sorcerer|Sarl]] is probably the most obvious, going from a supporting villain in the second book to the main bad guy in the third and screwing things up a ''lot'' before getting undone by his own hubris and inability to control his own followers. [[Complete Monster|High Lord Kalarus]] does better, effectively holding the title of [[Big Bad]] for the middle three books (of six), but he still goes down hard just before the [[Hive Queen|real Big Bad]] reveals herself.

* The Shadowmasters, particularly their leader Longshadow, in the middle part of the ''[[Black Company]]'' series. Though they certainly do a lot of damage, they just don't stack up compared to [[Evil Overlord|the Lady]], [[Sealed Evil in a Can|the Dominator]], or [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|the Ten Who Were Taken]] from the first arc, [[God of Evil|Kina]] from the later books, or even [[Wild Card|Soulcatcher]], who operates throughout. Longshadow especially proves himself to be an incredibly powerful sorcerer and dangerous opponent, but he's just too erratic and paranoid to put his abilities and resources to their fll potential.

* [[Super Mario Bros.|Bowser]] is this in the various Mario [[Role -Playing Game|Role Playing Games]]s (save for the first ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]''), in which he is always upstaged by the day's [[Big Bad]]. Often, he is even put into a hero position to stop the villain.

* Wilhelm von Juergen from ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' (or, more precisely, [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|The ODE System]] that absorbed him)... is practically [[Trope Pantheons/Disgraces|the God of this trope]]. His debut in the OVA involves effortlessly capturing the new Aggressors (Lamia Loveless, Arado Balanga, Seolla Schweitzer and Latooni Subota) plus Kusuha Mizuha, because [[Worf Had the Flu|all of them are not in any mecha]]. Then, while Lamia eventually resisted him, he still manages to overrode her mind one time before Kyosuke plugged her out, while the rest of his captives are subdued by the rest of the EFA and restored. [[It Got Worse]] in ''Original Generation Gaiden'', whereas while once Lamia resisted he couldn't override her mind, instead he {{spoiler|apparently}} killed her off, now while she was battered and naked on Alt Eisen's arm... only for seconds later (after the rest of the EFA weaken him) get killed off (and reabsorbed) by [[Super Robot Wars Reversal|Duminuss]]. To add insult to injury/death, {{spoiler|Duminuss "revives" her, then later Axel brought her back to her normal self, rendering Juergen's "victory" pointless.}}

* President Shinra -- firstShinra—first senior, then junior -- injunior—in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. You start out fighting their corporation that owns practically the whole planet and is slowly killing it, until Sephiroth shows up, kills the old President Shinra in passing, and sets out to kill the Planet in a much more grandiose manner. Rufus Shinra becomes the new president of the Shinra Corporation in his father's place and promises to be even more ruthless, but he can never make it past the status of a secondary menace with Sephiroth around, and in fact tries to work in parallel with the heroes against him sometimes, though never with them. And in media following the game, he's mostly stopped trying to be a villain.

* In ''[[Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi]]'', we have several examples of this: First, Mojo Jojo -- theJojo—the Girls' canonical [[Arch Enemy]] -- nearly—nearly succeeds in killing them with a monster, only for them to be saved by [[Samurai Jack|Jack]], at which point Mojo is captured by [[The Dragon|Bell]] and forcibly "recruited" to work for the Darkstar Council. Then, when they arrive at the Council's base, they're greeted by [[Invader Zim|Zim]], who for a moment seems to be pretty high up in the organization, since he's sitting on a throne and giving a [[Motive Rant]] about their goals... then Dr. X, the ''real'' [[Big Bad]] shows up, and tells Zim to get out of his chair and get back to his janitor duties. Later on, [[Dexter's Laboratory|Mandark]] shows up and appears to be a major villain, but it's quickly made apparent that he's nothing but a [[Unwitting Pawn|pawn]] that [[Man Behind the Man|Dr. X]] is [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulating]] through his mental instability.

{{quote| '''Megatron:''' You really thought that you could lead the Decepticons? You couldn't lead a parade.}}

** There is of course Starscream in the original cartoon, repeatedly trying to kill Megatron and failing miserably, but always gets let off with a slap on the wrist. When Megatron turns into Galvatron after Starscream betrays him yet again, Megatron decides he has had enough and disintegrates Starscream.

** The [[Transformers Prime]] Starscream seems like a big threat to start off with, killing one of the autobots in the first ten minutes, competently leading the decepticons and even showing some signs of beating his [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]] when he displays concern for Megatron’s wellbeing. Unfortunately he is extremely vulnerable to [[Villainous Breakdown|Villainous Breakdowns]]s and thinks he’s far tougher than he actually is, the humiliation piling up until he’s left badly damaged with no allies and is [[Put on a Bus|forced onto a bus]] for the rest of the season.

*** [[Beast Wars]] had a similar character with Terrasaur, and while smarter than G1 cartoon Starscream, proved to be as big of a failure. His attempts to overthrow Megatron generally resulted in whoever he was working with manipulating him as part their own plan. Basically, he's an 80s Starscream [[Expy]] in a [[Darker and Edgier]] 90s series, and "Megatron has falle- oh, wait!" just doesn't cut it when you're surrounded by true [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]]s. As TF Wiki puts it, "Terrorsaur is always thinking two steps ahead. Unfortunately, the big guns of the Beast Wars are usually thinking at least four steps ahead, and Terrorsaur always ends up on the short end."

* In ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'', this is Sky-Byte's ''entire life'', especially after he loses his position as [[Big Bad|Megatron's]] [[The Dragon|second in command]] to [[Evil Twin|Scourge]]. Sky-Bite and his three Predacon underlings are hopelessly outclassed by just about everyone else in the series, but Sky-Bite keeps on trying.

* Killer Moth from ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' is a [[Mad Scientist]] with dreams of conquering the city, and the skill to probably make it happen--ifhappen—if he didn't have a ridiculous gimmick, and wasn't completely cowed by his [[Bratty Teenage Daughter]]. ''She's'' as evil as he is, but not very bright, and when she hijacks his scheme as a means to get a date for her prom, well... things go downhill pretty fast.

* Pol Pot wanted to create a self-sufficient communist nation, that would surpass China. He also hope to surpass Mao's cultural revolution by forcing all urban inhabitants out of the city and into the fields. So far he never even succeeded in anything Mao didn't. The only thing he created was a horrifically backwards nation, where its only function was the persecution and senseless killing of its own people - approximately two million out of eight million.

* Leonid Brezhnev attempted to create his own [[Cult of Personality|personality cult]] in the Soviet Union, equating himself to Lenin and Stalin (and attempting to steal the glory from others who actually earned it--likeit—like the time he inserted himself into Georgi Zhukov's autobiography as a strategy advisor when in reality he was a low-level political officer during the Great Patriotic War). It didn't work very well and his efforts possibly set the stage for the USSR's ultimate collapse.