Big Bad Wannabe: Difference between revisions

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* 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.

* 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.

** {{spoiler|This even carries over into their eventual fate. Many of the villains are defeated and have to live with their dreams being crushed, but they're still around, and some of them are better off when they find something new to do with their lives. Hodi and his crew talked big about sacrificing their lives for the strength the Energy Steroids gave them (the steroids being the only reason they were ever a threat at all) but after going to jail, the toll of the steroids turns out to simply be turning them into harmless, wrinkled old fogies. The would-be conquerors of the world are too lame for even their defeat to have a modicum of dignity.}}

* Mixer Taitei manages to be one of the only villains to ever straight up defeat ''[[Kinnikuman]]'' himself, but immediately afterward suffers the ignominy of being basically killed by Kinnikuman's milquetoast kid sidekick, Meat. To be fair, Mixer Taitei is a giant blender Choujin and his fight with Kinnikuman has literally knocked a few of his screws loose without him realizing it, making him extremely vulnerable to drops and suplexes... but the fact remains that after beating [[The Hero]], he was in turn defeated by a preteen 1/8th his size. The only reason he won against Kin was because the 5 Evil Gods gave him a temporary power-up, meaning the match was 1 against 6. And even then Mr. VTR has to alter reality enough to reverse Kin's [[Finishing Move]] in Mixer's favor.

* 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 -- 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.

** To be fair to the guy, with Kushana presumed dead he ''would'' be left in charge of their forces and the operation to revive the Giant Warrior. Backing off when Kushana reappears just means he's basically just loyal to her and his complaining is more bemusement that actual bitterness.

== 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.

*** 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 over his head. Dumbledore infers that Voldemort only let Draco join the Death Eaters to punish Draco's father's failures.

* [[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}}