Designated Villain: Difference between revisions

If one is written in anyway, the result is a character who is treated as a bad guy by the plot, despite never actually doing anything as to justify the amount of hate that they receive from the good guys. [[Straw Man Has a Point|Any astute arguments and observations]] by this character are to be dismissed by the audience, because they are [[Obviously Evil]][[Tradesnark|™]], just as the [[Designated Hero]] is regarded as 'good' despite having no significant virtues.

 

 

Alternately, it might be a character that could fall under [[Hero Antagonist]]...except, since they're an antagonist, they can't possibly be on the side of good. Keep in mind that antagonists and villains are very different things.

 

 

Not to be confused with [[Offstage Villainy]], which is where the bad guy did bad things...but not on screen.

 

Please note that [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], as this can sometimes be done on purpose to add more shades of grey to a story, or to show that the heroes are not completely perfect.

 

== Media in General ==

* [[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]] is this in a scene in the third movie. After [[Bratty Half Pint|Hikaru]] wants Naruto to be his slave, he justifiably says no. In response, Hikaru hits Naruto with a toy arrow. That is when Naruto finally decides to lightly punch him. However, Sakura hears Hikaru's crying and not only punches Naruto, but ties him up and starves him until he apologizes.

* Luc displays an odd case of this in the ''[[Suikoden III]]'' Manga, where he goes to considerable effort to hide the fact that he's trying to save the world (through mass genocide, but still). When the hero finds this out, he even rants about not needing sympathy for his actions. He was a [[Jerkass]] even when he was a good guy.

* ''[[Star Driver (Anime)|Star Driver]]'' has a bit of this. Yes, the Glittering Crux Brigade kidnapped the maiden to allow them to summon giants to Earth for some reason that probably involves fighting, since we never see anything else happen, but when they aren't wearing their masks, they're pretty nice guys. Even the leader of Adult Bank, President, who is a schoolgirl wife who kisses men other than her husband through the glass because her husband is never around - Openly! Like, ''in class''! - only has a massive boat to live in, not because she's uber rich and spoiled, but because she's pretty sure that {{spoiler|volcanoes will explode when they succeed, and wants to evacuate everyone off the island, so no one dies.}} After asking why else she would possibly have such a thing, both of her subordinates - who give her drinks and massages whenever she wants - simply stare at her, bewildered.

* The Computer Club President from ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' could be considered this. Yes, he cheated in the RTS game, but it was only to get back the computer that Haruhi essentially ''stole'' via some rather cruel blackmail.

* ''[[My Immortal (Fanfic)|My Immortal]]'':

** Anyone who opposed [[Designated Hero|Ebony]].

** Britney. She's this and a [[Butt Monkey]]. Preps in general are treated as monsters, despite not even doing anything mean.

* Generally common in [[Harry Potter]] fics that try to portray Dumbledore as a cruel, manipulative man (as opposed to [[The Dumbledore|the benevolent, manipulative man he is in canon]]). Often times, the author cannot be bothered to figure out what Dumbledore's big plan is, resulting in him coming across as manipulating the main characters purely for the sake of manipulating them. Or at least trying to, since, invariably, despite Harry having no clue of Dumbledore's malevolent intentions for however far into the series the fic takes place, he is suddenly painfully transparent and Harry or our new [[Mary Sue]] can avoid his manipulations with ease.

== Films -- Animated ==

* The hyenas in ''[[The Lion King (Disney)|The Lion King]]'' are clearly not on the side of the protagonists and not exactly the nicest of people. But...that's largely the fault of the heroes themselves. Given a chance to actually have something to eat, the hyenas are completely loyal until they are betrayed. Before Scar, they were essentially banished to a barren wasteland. The only thing against them is that according to Nala due to some [[Offscreen Villainy]] because let the Hyenas take over the land it's a barren wasteland like there territory was.

* Vincent the bear in ''[[Over the Hedge (Film)|Over the Hedge]]''. On screen, the only thing he does is make RJ replace the food that he lost because he was stealing it. He makes a monologue about a bunch of [[Offscreen Villainy]], but without that, he's really just trying to survive.

* ''[[Megamind]]'' is this in-universe - everybody were always seeing him as nothing but trouble and his attempts to blend in and get friends backfired. His main motivation of being a villain is that everybody thinks of him as one already, [[Then Let Me Be Evil|so why not play along]]? {{spoiler|He later learns he doesn't have to be what people want him to}}.

* ''[[Twister]]'':

** Jonas and his "evil, tornado-chaser crew". Jonas used to be a "pure" tornado chaser, then he got corporate sponsors and a fleet of [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|black]] SUVs. He also has a duplicate of the main characters' "Dorothy" system, which he rightly claims credit for building. Bill (a guy who had given up tornado chasing to get a job as a TV weatherman) even assaults Jonas while he's talking to reporters, and gets angry when Jonas snidely asks how his new gig is going. This motivates Bill to abandon his fiancee and team up with his ex-wife and her crew. Bill also looks down on Jonas because he relies on technology and not instinct in order to predict tornadoes. So, if you can't sense the weather like Bill, you're a fraud, because, apparently, the whole point of tornado chasing isn't scientific research... And at the end, Jonas gets killed by a tornado. Um...yay?

* The disaster film ''Meteor'' had an American general be portrayed in a bad light for objecting to Russians getting access to a top secret American command center during the height of the Cold War. [[Straw Man Has a Point]].

* Dr. Jarret in ''Man's Best Friend'' is an interesting case of this. He is performing unethical & illegal research on animals (bad) and he created the genetically engineered killer dog that causes all the trouble in the movie (also bad, but keep reading). His purpose was to build the ultimate guard dog after his wife and child were killed; he figured it would be a good product to sell. He also kept Max on a strict regiment of drugs designed to keep him from going berserk and insane. When the [[Designated Hero]] steals Max from the laboratory, the police and others don't seem too interested in taking Dr. Jarret seriously, despite the fact that he has explained that his dog is a ticking time-bomb that's ready to explode in a shower of mayhem...He made the monster, but he kept it under control, and it was only due to the acts of others that it escaped and was able to kill people. And we're supposed to believe that he's bad.

* The human villains in ''The Lost World: [[Jurassic Park]]'' (the movie, not the book of the same name but a completely different plot) have this trait specifically so that their arguments can be dismissed. While they were shown to be quite ruthless when dealing with the dinosaurs, the [[Designated Hero|Designated Heroes]] were directly or indirectly responsible for every human death in the movie. The 'villains' keep going out of their way to save the protagonists' lives, while the 'heroes' continue to heckle and sabotage them. While a Tyrannosaurus is rampaging through the hunter group, the leader suddenly finds out that one of the heroes stole the bullets from his gun. They're even partly responsible for the Tyrannosaurus rampage in San Diego. The villains wouldn't have even considered bringing it to the mainland until the heroes released all of the herbivores they had captured already, forcing them to take the T-Rex to cover their losses, ''which were all caused by the heroes''.<br /><br />The film also falls headfirst into [[Straw Man Has a Point]]. The antagonists are supposed to be evil because they claim that the dinosaurs were property of the local [[Mega Corp]], when ''that's exactly what they are''; they wouldn't even exist if they hadn't been deliberately created, which also nicely shatters the protagonists' argument that they should be left alone to live naturally, nature having nothing to do with it. A clear example of the "villains" being more like jerks than actually evil people.<br /><br />A Deleted Scene would have thrown the [[Designated Villain]] trope out the window and thrown the movie into [[Grey and Gray Morality]], showing the [[Great White Hunter]] character (who never does anything immoral in the rest of the movie besides [[Crazy Awesome|wanting to hunt a T-Rex]]) defend a waitress from sexual harassment by beating the ever-loving crap out of the drunk idiots harassing her. Thus, [[Designated Villain]] happens by 'accident' by film-makers who had hoped to avoid it. The audience probably would have rooted for the [[Great White Hunter]] - much of them [[Ensemble Darkhorse|already did.]]

* The Machines in ''[[The Matrix (Film)|The Matrix]]'' become this in the [[All There in the Manual|fluff]]. {{spoiler|It turns out that their "genocide" of humanity was ''an act of self defense'' after humanity randomly decided to become bent on destroying ''them'', unprovoked, purely out of prejudice. And this was ''after'' humans had used them as routinely abused slave labor for years.}}

* ''[[Christmas With the Kranks]]'' places the Kranks at the same level as [[A Christmas Carol|Ebenezer Scrooge]] simply because their only flaw in the movie is that they do not want to celebrate the commercialism of Christmas for one year.

** Adams' roommate (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is particularly bad for this. The audience is expected to hate him because he's a stick in the mud and insufferably smug, but it's clear he tries earnestly to get good grades and we can understand why he might feel jealous of Patch (who gets the highest grades in the class without studying at all). He accuses Patch of cheating on his tests, and since we never see him study (whenever he's with the other med students, he just goofs off while ''they'' try to work), it does seem suspect for Adams to have such high grades. We can also understand why having a roommate as annoying as Patch might make one a little snippy, especially when the guy disrupts your tests by cracking jokes.

 

* For those who wonder what Clifford Simak was up to before writing ''Skirmish'', seek out an old work known as ''The Goblin Reservation''. [[Offstage Villainy]] is taken to the greatest extreme ever seen, with a single remark about rumors of atrocities combined with [[Beauty Equals Goodness|a hideous appearance]] being enough to condemn the entire species of the Wheelers as [[Always Chaotic Evil]]. [[It Got Worse|To top it off]], {{spoiler|we find out towards the end that the Wheelers were a former slave race who [[Turned Against Their Masters]], but said masters are never shown in anything other than a positive light.}}

* Before ''[[The Worm Ouroboros (Literature)|The Worm Ouroboros]]'' decided to ditch its framing device, the viewpoint character is guided around by a talking marlet, who identifies many of the main characters and pours a ton of adjectival condemnation on the villains. This is before they've done anything. Lessingham dryly concludes that "A fiery politician is my marlet", and resolves to make up his own mind on things. He and the marlet are never referred to again. As it turns out, the villains aren't much different from the heroes and certainly don't deserve titles like "the children of night everlasting". This is an odd example because the author seems to quite like them.

* ''[[Twilight (Literature)|Twilight]]'':

** Technically, she's not a villain, but Leah is considered to be a bitter, shrewish harpy who is usually ignored and dumped on. Turns out, the reason she's bitter is because her fiance was essentially brainwashed into loving her cousin and everyone blames her for being upset over this all while she has to listen to her former fiance's thoughts on his True Love for her cousin. Edward threatens to kick her over a river because she yells at Bella for stringing Jacob (who she sees as a friend later) along. Add in the fact that she is one of the few characters who actively tries to better herself and move on after losing a significant other (and her father ''dies'' after seeing her shape-shift), it's kind of hard to see why readers are supposed to dislike her.

** Particularly jarring is Bella's view on her father. In every other series, this might be brushed aside because she'd be considered an [[Unreliable Narrator]] or it would be normal teenager behaviour, but in this case, we are supposed to see Charlie as the mean old guy who grounds Bella and just doesn't understand how much she needs Edward. This is after Bella starting to distance him immediately after she started dating Edward, ran away from home because she 'broke up' with him, was stalked by him across states, was severely injured in very suspicious fashions, after which she immediately decided to get back to Edward's side, was abandoned by Edward in the woods, became catatonic and suicidal, ran away from home AGAIN, to a different country, because Edward threatened suicide on her.

** Even people Bella allegedly gets along with act as Designated Villains if they're not vampires. Jessica, one of the first friends Bella made, is regularly considered to be a [[False Friend]] in Bella's mental commentary; Jessica, who was nothing but nice to Bella when they first met, instantly and repeatedly forgave Bella blowing her off again and again for the first supernatural pretty boy to waltz by, and generally appears to like Bella except during her blatantly insane phase in ''New Moon'', despite Bella's ceaselessly condescending view of her. It never ''once'' occurs to Bella that any distance that develops between her and Jessica is due to Bella being a complete parasite that only acts friendly to Jessica when she wants something from her; Bella's first flirtations with deliberately endangering herself to hallucinate about Edward's voice ''also put Jessica in danger'', and Bella is resentful and offended when Jessica starts keeping her distance for the rest of the book!

* In ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]]'', Bates, Kavanaugh, and Ellis tend to end up in this role. [[Straw Man Has a Point|They usually have legitimate concerns or complaints]], but because these are against the main cast of characters (Bates seeing Teyla as a security risk, Kavanaugh complaining to Weir about Weir degrading him in public, Ellis wanting McKay to cut the exposition and get to the point), the characters are presented as reactionary jerkasses. There is also a trend of portraying Kavanaugh, in his few appearances, as a coward, even though, every time, he is up against a situation in which his fear is perfectly understandable.

* In ''[[The Office]]'':

** This can also be the case for the conflict between Andy and Dwight: both were trying to get each other fired, but we're supposed to side with Dwight.

** The UK version of ''The Office'' features this trope in regards to Neil Godwin (Brent's boss) who, according to [[Word of God]], we are not supposed to like. His crimes are neatly summed up in [[The Other Wiki]] as "He is dismissive towards David's dog and shared a joke with Chris Finch at the expense of David's Christmas party date, Carol." That Christmas Party doesn't happen until the very last episode.

** Even then, he comes across as more of a [[Jerkass]] than a true villain

** "i Meet [[Fred]]": Because Freddie didn't like Fred's videos, Lucas Cruikshank decides to stop making them. This causes everyone in school to ostracize him, he gets kicked out of every club he was in, and his own relatives start to hate him. But then in turns out that it was all a publicity stunt by Cruikshank. Even after it turns out he was lying, [[Smug Snake|he still makes Freddie apologize and say his videos are funny]]. While he apologizes, he still refuses to say he likes his videos. This leads to [[The Scrappy|Sam]] [[Kick the Dog|beating]] [[The Woobie|Freddie]] [[Designated Hero|and knock him out of a treehouse]]. Dear, [[Dan Schneider]]: If you want us to root for your protagonists, try making them likable first.

*** Sterling's case is further hurt by one scene in which as a cruel joke, the bookworm's wife asks him to read poetry from one of his books to her; he eagerly obliges, only to find that she has drawn lines over the text on every page. Is it any wonder he prefers books to people?

* ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'':

** Cara also helped overthrow the evil overlord who was in charge of the brainwashing. So, it could be argued that she had broken her brainwashing and was already helping people without anyone forcing her to. Cara was also happy for them to kill her.

* Possibly used in ''[[Survivor (TV)|Survivor]]: Heroes vs. Villains'', where people like Sandra and Coach could hardly be considered villains ([[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when Jeff asks if anyone thinks they were put on the wrong team); and Rob, who (shockingly) played the game more heroically than most of the Heroes. The episode where {{spoiler|he gets voted off}} is even titled "I guess I'm not really a good villain". Also subverted with Parvarti and Russel, who said "what did I do that was so bad?" and ended up being the primary antagonists season after season.

* ''[[Merlin (TV)|Merlin]]'':

** Mordred, who, in this version, is played by a child. We're supposed to view Mordred as a [[Creepy Child]] because the show plays ominous music over extreme close-ups of his large blue eyes, but all that's played out on screen is a kid who's been hunted, persecuted, and had everyone he's ever loved killed by the people who are generally considered "the good team". He uses his magical powers to kill a group of knights advancing on him with swords drawn, clearly preparing to kill him - this was apparently meant to prove to the audience that he's evil incarnate, even though the good guys make self-defensive kills all the time.

** Morgause as well. What exactly has this woman done besides try to expose Uther's lies to Arthur and then win back what she thinks rightfully belongs to her half-sister? In one episode, she puts the entire castle to sleep in order to assassinate Uther and claim Morgana without any innocent lives being lost - the writers must have realized that this put her in ''too''' good a light, and later [[Word of God|stated]] that the sleeping spell would have eventually proved fatal for everyone were it not broken in time.

* Morgan from ''[[Camelot (TV)|Camelot]]'' starts out this way. Sure, the second thing she does is kill her father -- but that seems to be over a legitimate grudge, and the ''first'' thing she does is try to forgive him for it; it's only when he hits her in the face and tells her "[[I Have No Son|I have no daughter]]" that she moves into murder mode. After that, she spends several episodes trying to claim her throne from what, so far as she can see, is a pretender plucked out of thin air by a manipulative sorcerer. And her methods for winning the throne? Well, after an alliance with the local warlord (a matter of necessity in the absence of an army of her own) falls through, she sets to work bringing justice to the kingdom, trying to demonstrate to the people that she's a better choice for ruler than Merlin's puppet.

* ''[[Ron Killings]]'':

** R-Truth's heel turn. He won a match to earn a shot at the WWE title. Next week, [[John Morrison]] convinced Truth to put his opportunity for the title on the line in a match against him. Morrison won the match and Truth attacked him afterwards, thus turning heel. So, apparently, in WWE logic, he's a bad guy when Morrison is the one who manipulated him into giving up his title shot.

** Truth wasn't manipulated. Morrison tried to manipulate him but it backfired. Ultimately, Truth left it up to the audience who cheered at the idea of him and Morrison having a rematch. The fact of the matter is that him losing his title shot was his own fault and he was a sore loser about it. The heel turn could've been handled better, but WWE immediately [[Flanderization|used him being a sore loser to show how much of an evil person he is]].

* In [[TNA]], [[Girl Posse|The Beautiful People]] had a match where, on their way to the ring, they reunited with founding member Angelina Love. At the end of their match, Angelina joins them in the ring to celebrate, only for her to attack them (Leaving BFF Velvet Sky in tears). Why did she turn on them? Because she was replaced with Lacey Von Erich (done because [[Real Life Writes the Plot|she was having issues with her Visa that kept her from returning to the states]]). Yet the Beautiful People are seen as the bad guys for wanting revenge against a cheap attack by someone who they thought was their friend.

* A [[Double Subversion]] happens in ''[[Fools]]''. Count Yousekevitch is set up to be the villain by the other characters and is presented in a ridiculous "bad guy" outfit. His only real crime is trying to marry a pretty girl. Later, he even lampshades this. He then seemingly has a [[Pet the Dog]] moment...only to turn it into a [[Kick the Dog]] and prove himself to be just as bad as everyone else said.

* Ellen in ''[[Miss Saigon]]'' is often perceived as this by fans of the show, as she is seen as the obstacle to Kim and Chris reuniting.

* ''[[A Dolls House (Theatre)|A Dolls House]]'':

** Magnificently subverted in Ibsen's story with Nils Krogstad, who is repeatedly demonized as an unpleasant and weak [[Kick the Dog|dog kicker]], but is, upon closer inspection, just trying to secure his job so he can feed his children, and is eventually talked into a total [[Heel Face Turn]]. The ''real'' villain turns out to be [[Knight in Shining Armor]] Torvald Helmer.

* The Giantess in ''[[Into the Woods]]''. Her only real crime is not being human. She treated Jack kindly and protected him from her husband, and, in return, he robs her and kills her husband. If she was a human, Jack (who admits that he did it) would have been hauled off to jail, if not the chopping block. All the deaths in the second half are either accidents (because she can't see without her glasses) or caused by humans. There is even a scene in the second act deconstructing this, and discussing why she deserves to live less than Jack does. Eventually, none of them can tell who is supposed to be the hero anymore.

 

 

* [[Dissidia Final Fantasy|Dissidia Duodecim]] reveals through Chaos backstory that {{spoiler|he really isn't evil at all—he's just doing what Garland, Cid, Cosmos and Shinryu have told him to do, and as such this is an Invoked Trope. It just happens he looks like a monstrous demon, and most of the warriors he calls to serve him are villainous.}}

* ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou]]'' runs on this:

** ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' offers a rare encounter: in one route, at least, Marisa and Byakuren seem to hit it off on the subject of magic use, end-up sidelined by a painfully short theological disconnect ("'youkai' protected from humans" versus "humans protected from 'youkai'"), and it's the last boss who demands the fight. Marisa might have been rude (as always) but Byakuren didn't even try hard.

** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Alternatively]], given events in ''Silent Sinner In Blue'', where {{spoiler|Reimu and Marisa assist Yukari in her invasion of the Moon for [[For the Evulz|no apparent reason]] and were soundly beaten}}, it's possible that Reimu and Marisa were meant to be [[Villain Protagonist|villain protagonists]] for the duration of UFO in the same vein [[Heel Face Turn|previous bosses became player characters]].

** It's [[Invoked Trope]] in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'', where Tenshi designated herself as the villain [[For the Lulz|because she was bored]].

* ''[[Yggdra Union]]'':

** Following this, we also have [[Jerkass Woobie|Nessiah]], who is actually quite finished causing trouble throughout the world by the time you find him, and whose current major offense is that he's [[Revenge Before Reason|being a vindictive little shit]].<ref>He and Gulcasa, who you have just killed at this point, were ''[[Blaze Union|very]] [[Official Couple|close]].'' Nessiah congratulates you on your victory by making a [[People Puppet]] of your recently deceased friend, Kylier, and forcing you to fight her. (Incidentally, Kylier herself [[Sympathy for The Devil|actually says outright that she doesn't hold it against him.]])</ref> At this point of the game, all he wants to do is {{spoiler|leave the world of Ancardia and finally get revenge on Asgard for the wrongs done to him--and Asgard is run by the [[Bigger Bad]] of the series and Nessiah's people are subject to horrific levels of [[Fantastic Racism]] even when they're ''not'' marching out of step}}. If he succeeded, the world would be a much better place; if he died trying, well, it wouldn't be any skin off the Royal Army's nose; either way he wouldn't be your problem any longer. Instead, the Royal Army insists that he must be killed in order to prevent any possible negative consequences for the world of Ancardia.

* Daleth from ''[[Shin Megami Tensei II]]'' is a literal example. {{spoiler|He was created by the Center to be the anti-Messiah so the main character can defeat him and grow more popular.}}

** They arrested Faith's sister after ''framing her in the first place''. Also, they killed people who protested that the city was becoming totalitarian, including the protagonist's mother.

* Most of the Portrait Ghosts in ''[[Luigis Mansion (Video Game)|Luigi's Mansion]]'' don't even attack, and seem fairly content with just hanging around the mansion.

* Cao Cao and the Wei forces in ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'', in keeping with his characterization from ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Literature)|Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]''. The game runs on this. No matter who you play as, the other 2 kingdoms (and minor forces) tend to be painted as the bad guys (which makes sense, since they're trying to unite china under their rule too), so it's a conflict of interest. Except [[Complete Monster|Dong Zhuo]] and, to a lesser extent, [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|Lu Bu]].

* Played with in ''[[Star Ocean Till the End of Time]]''. During the search for Amelia, you run into Rodger, and then run into a bandit leader. He was willing to ignore you and go about his way, but the party members kept saying he looked 'evil'. The only reason you fight him is because they wouldn't stop saying that and the bandit snapped.

* Simply going by what the players see, the [[The Empire|UED]] in ''Starcraft: Brood War'' turn into this. They don't come off as particularly evil when you're playing as them in the Terran campaign, and many players were glad that you force Mengsk off his throne playing as them. Yet in the Zerg campaign you find [[The Hero|Jim Raynor]], who loathes Mengsk with passion, and the Protoss, who the UED barely have any contact with, helping Kerrigan try push them out when she ultimately proves to be the worse of two evils.

* In ''[[X (Video Game)|X3: Albion Prelude]]'', the Terrans are evil for {{spoiler|demanding justice for a terrorist committing an act of ''genocide'' purely out of racism.}}

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Codename Kids Next Door (Animation)|Codename Kids Next Door]],'':

** {{spoiler|Numbah 86's father is Mr. Boss}}. Unusual because he loves his own child, but is one of the greatest and oldest enemies of the present KND and is the leader of some of the lesser villains.

** Some villains don't even display malice toward the KND after their introductory episodes. The holding of events like villain barbecues and award ceremonies seems to indicate that fighting the KND is a hobby as well as a crusade.

* A great many cartoons feature a slow-witted, loyal dog trying to defend some valuable property from a thief. We're supposed to take the thief's side. Probably the most obvious example is [[Chilly Willy]], though ''[[Underdog (Animation)|Underdog]]'''s Klondike Kat also qualifies.

* A possible deconstruction of this trope: in the pilot episode of ''[[Justice League]]'', an American Senator has a proposal to rid the world of nuclear weapons by having Superman work round-the-clock to dismantle the nukes of every country on Earth (it's implied that all the countries agreed to this). While he's outlining the proposal, an angry American General stands up and declares that he shouldn't do it because "Those weapons are our only defense against aggression!" (In this continuity, the Earth had just barely escaped an alien invasion by [[Darkseid]]...and a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] [[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]] as well...only a few years earlier) The American general is accused of warmongering and shamed into silence and the nuclear disarmament begins. Then, after all the nukes in the world are disarmed, it turns out that the Senator was actually an evil alien in disguise and the disarmament plan he proposed was intended to keep the nations of Earth from destroying the alien ships that were about to invade. Oops. Guess you should have listened to the warmongering American General in the first place, eh? <ref>The funniest part of that episode is that when the invasion began, the Senator (who hadn't yet been revealed as an alien) appeared on television and announced that "no one could have predicted this would happen". Well, no one except for, um, the American General who said those nukes were, quote, "our only defense against aggression".</ref> This is clearly [[Take That|satirizing]] the plot of ''[[Superman IV]].''

** He is, however, stated to be prideful and obsessed with winning. It's implied he may have pulled similar tricks before.

* The Urpneys of ''[[The Dreamstone]]'', who are essentially [[Slave Mook|Slave Mooks]] to the far more malicious Zordrak, ordered into stealing the titular stone with threat of [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]] or death if they fail. The heroes are generally apathetic to this situation and have no problem punishing them equally anytime they invade the Land Of Dreams (even using somewhat greyer solutions such as [[Heel Face Brainwashing]] or placing them in certain death situations, on a few occasions). Add to that their highly affable demeanor and camaraderie, and the Urpneys really linger as genuine antagonists.

** Homer in "Homer's Enemy". [[Word of God]] said their goal was to show that a real person could not survive in the show, [[Broken Aesop|but they did it by making Homer]] [[Took a Level In Jerkass|look worse]] [[Flanderization|than he really was]] in order to make [[Only Sane Man|Frank Grimes]] look better.

 

[[Category:Villains]]

[[Category:Designated Villain]]