Big Bad Wannabe: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Azula:''' [[
'''Long Feng:'''....(''kneels before Azula'') [[Out-Gambitted|You've beaten me at my own game.]]
'''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.
There are a lot of ways of building up a baddie. In a kids show a school bully might just talk tough. In a more adult work the wannabe might beat up a tough hero to look even tougher: the [[Worf Effect]].
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{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* Hol Horse from the ''Stardust Crusaders'' arc of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]''. He even tries to kill Dio at one point, only to be given the first demonstration of Dio's [[Time Stands Still|Time Stop.]]
* Marie from ''[[Flame of Recca]]'' manages to easily "defeat" [[The Smart Guy]] Mikagami Tokiya through a string of coincidences, but is later smacked around by Recca and Domon, and she's been a non-factor ever since.
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** ''[[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]]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]].
* The original series of [[Gunnm]] has Bigott Einsenburg who seems to be a high ranking official in Zalem and has a smug disdain for scrapyard cyborgs who [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|defile their bodies with electronics]]. He betrays Gally several times because he just sees her as a disposable tool. He also has access to the superweapon "Abbadon" which crushes a full scale rebellion led by a [[Humongous Mecha]] in seconds. However {{spoiler|Desti Nova then reveals all citizens of Zalem have their brains replaced with chips when they come of age. Cue an epic psychotic fit which leads to the guy and all his co workers being eradicated by Zalem's true robotic rulers.}}
* 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
* Noah from [[Soul Eater]] He is thought to be the 3rd Big Bad of the series Until it turned out to be the Book of Eibon's table of Contents.
==
* Komodo Dragon from ''[[Invincible]]'' singlehandedly killed Shrinking Ray and Dupli-Kate and tore out one of Rex Splode's arms, but Rex still kills him shortly thereafter
* The original Saw Viper from the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' comics killed ''([[Killed Off for Real|for real]])'' four named Joes and with his battalion killed off some more (including some pretty prominent ones like Quick Kick) in the space of a single issue, whereas the Cobra organization had repeatedly failed to kill even ''one'' named Joe for years prior to that event. He then had the gall to point this out to ''Cobra Commander'' (a guy well known for being extremely dangerous and unpredictable) himself. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow eventually hunt down and kill him offscreen for his heinous deed.
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* The Yellow Bastard in ''[[Sin City]]''. Sure he's a rapist and murderer (of children, no less) but in combat, he's a [[Dirty Coward]] and is eventually killed pretty easily.
** Honestly, every villain in Sin City tend to fold like a wet towel in a straight-up fight, even built-up badasses like Manute and The Colonel. The only real exception is Kevin.
* ''[[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
== Fan
* The ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' fanfic
* ''[[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—to force Jade, and by extension her Shadowkhan, into his service—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]].}}
** Shortly afterwards, Drago arrives from the future in an attempt to [[Make Wrong What Once Went Right|change the timeline to his desire]]. However, while he has the strength to back up his plans, said plans are constantly derailed by every other faction he comes up against kicking his ass {{spoiler|and he's eventually sent back to the future, where Future Jade has him restrained and beaten}}. He doesn't look so impressive at that point.
▲== Films ==
* Justin Hammer in ''[[Iron Man 2]]'' believes he's going to take down Tony Stark, especially since he just "hired" Ivan Vanko, a brilliant tech wiz that can create gear rivaling Iron Man's. The thing is, Hammer has absolutely ''no'' control over Vanko as the latter hacks into his system, derails his [[Powered Armor]] prototypes into unmanned drones, and so on. Vanko even plays up [[You No Take Candle]] for no other reason than to annoy Hammer, and get him out of his way. Hammer's is most clearly shown as pathetic when he tries to force Vanko into line... [[Poke the Poodle|by taking his pet bird. And his shoes.]]
* Buckingham in the 2011 version of ''[[The Three Musketeers (2011 film)|The Three Musketeers]]''. He humiliates the Musketeers, counts on [[The Heavy|Milady de Winter]]'s allegiance, believes his [[Cool Airship|war machine]] to be invincible and all but states to [[Sinister Minister|Cardinal Richelieu]] that France would have no chance against England in case of war. However... {{spoiler|Milady is just spying on him and promply defects [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|upon learning that the Musketeers are en route to London]], he's the first villain to be taken out by the Musketeers and they even steal his invincible machine}}.
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== Literature ==
* Shamoke from ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]''. A bit of a subversion, since the novel treats him as working under Shu, the good guys. He manages to kill a weakened Gan Ning with a shot to the head, but after Shu falls for a fire attack in a later confrontation, Shamoke retreats, and is then killed by Wu general Zhou Tai.
* 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 ''[[
*** 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
** 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 ''[[
* [[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}}
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* [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. Eggman]] has evolved into this starting in ''[[Sonic Adventure]]'', since he constantly tries to use [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed evil in cans]] but fails to learn that [[Evil Is Not a Toy]], so he constantly helps his enemies defeat it before unleashing the next evil. ''[[Sonic Colors]]'' rectified this though, as he does his old-fashioned scheme of using his [[Mecha-Mooks]] to defeat Sonic.
** Except in the DS version, where he unleashes {{spoiler|a brainwashed and Nega-fied Mother Wisp.}}
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Bowser]] is this in the various Mario [[Role
* Rieltar Anchev in ''[[Baldur's Gate]]''. He seems to be the mastermind behind the Iron Throne's evil plans, but turns out to be just a puppet for his adopted son Sarevok, whose own plans have an even darker end.
* Benny, your character's would-be-killer who jumpstarts the main quest line of ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', thinks he's the main event, but it turns out he's barely a [[Disc One Final Boss]].
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** It doesn't hurt that you can actually talk him to death (well, suicide): not exactly the mark of the usual [[Big Bad]], unless we're talking about [[Planescape: Torment]].
* If {{spoiler|Loghain}} had pulled his coup during normal times in [[Dragon Age]] he'd be a pretty threatening [[Big Bad]], but since there's a Blight going on he's just a distraction on the way to the Archdemon.
* Wilhelm von Juergen from ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' (or, more precisely, [[
* President Shinra—first senior, then junior—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.
* Azmodan in ''[[Diablo III]]'' wants so badly to be the Prime Evil. Too bad his competition is Diablo.
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** A little less wannabe since that whole ''nuclear weapons'' train they jumped on.
*** Though, to be fair, North Korea's robust nuclear program doesn't mean a tick, as they lack any real means to ''deliver'' these nuclear weapons.
* 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—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.
** His two successors, Andropov and Chernenko, were too old and sick to each last much longer than a year as General Secretary.
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[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Big Bad Wannabe]]
[[Category:Aspiring Index]]
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