39,327
edits
Harmless Villain: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
prefix>Import Bot (Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.HarmlessVillain 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.HarmlessVillain, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 2:
<!-- %%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1318278245023034500 -->
<!-- %%Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. -->
[[File:ameoba_boys_4970.png|link=The Powerpuff Girls|right|[[What Do You Mean
Line 9:
Villains are vile, ruthless, merciless, and bloodthirsty; any pretension of civility is just a smokescreen to hide a ''really'' twisted [[Big Bad]]. Not exactly kid-friendly, is it? So what are kids shows and movies supposed to do, if the original source's baddy eats babies? Why, [[Disneyfication|make them]] a [[Harmless Villain]] of course!
Their goals can be as grandiose as any other villain's, but the way they go about their plans makes one wonder [[And Then What?|what they'd do]] if they ever ''[[Team Rocket Wins|win.]]'' Instead of putting the heroes through a [[Death Course]], it'll merely be an obstacle course strewn with riddles. Rather than threatening to use Anthrax in the heart of London, they'll use sleeping gas to get away with a heist. If they capture the hero, expect only the most benign of [[Death Trap|Death Traps]] (usually with a tub of Mr. Pibb instead of a [[Shark Pool]]); and instead of [[Cold
Specific [[Evil Plan|evil plots]] will usually include amazing [[MacGuffin]] devices that mildly inconvenience people and get the hero involved; often, these plots are of such a scale and intricacy that if someone [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check]], they'd be so rich, they wouldn't need that giant Gold-only Orbital Magnet to steal the world's supply of gold.
Line 25:
Their minions are as often as not [[Faceless Goons]] and [[Minion With an F In Evil|comically good]] [[Mauve Shirt|Mauve Shirts]], both of which tend to do kooky and funny things when their boss isn't looking. These villains often have a degree of [[Karmic Protection]] because of the small scale of their "evil", especially when there are more [[Serious Business|serious]] villains around.
Keep in mind, though, that sometimes they become a [[Not
Compare [[Big Bad Wannabe]], where the [[Harmless Villain]] tries one shot to prove his harm and accidentally succeeded, and later, the more harmful villains quickly snuff him/her and make him/her know his place. Contrast [[Beware the Silly Ones]], where an ''apparently'' [[Harmless Villain]] is only so because, as [[Fridge Logic]] reveals, [[The Hero]] is ''just that good.'' Also contrast [[Vile Villain Saccharine Show]], which is when a genuinely nasty villain appear in a work that would normally merit this trope. also see [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
Line 36:
* The [[Terrible Trio|Team Rocket]] trio from ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]'', no doubt about it. They're actually much better at being ''good'' than they are at being ''bad''.
** They've always been blunderers, but they ''did'' provide genuine conflict in the early episodes. By Johto, they'd gone through complete [[Villain Decay]] and reached their current status as comic relief. The original creator of the characters, Takeshi Shudo, had, by that point, lost control of them, and [[Creator Backlash|stated his dissatisfaction with how the characters have devolved]] on his blog.
** {{spoiler|In the new series, however, they've risen up to levels that make them seem more fearsome than when they first appeared, making them [[Not
** ''How I Became a Pokemon Card'', a manga full of one-shots, has a protagonist named Hiroshi. He's a kid who wants to be a part of Team Rocket, but he's always accidentally doing good things. Team Rocket, in that manga, is also this, though they're depicted as being a menace for some reason.
* Florsheim from ''[[Tentai Senshi Sunred (Manga)|Tentai Senshi Sunred]]'' has tried a few villainous schemes from time to time, but they always get caught up in helping Sunred with his love life, or saving a stray cat, or doing things that seem out of character for an evil organization. They're still fairly powerful, considering they're sentai villains, but they aren't villain''ous'' by any stretch of the imagination.
Line 42:
** Of course, when a new evil group comes to town, Sunred tells them to wipe out Florsheim if they want the job. He has full confidence in Florsheim being [[Not So Harmless]], and it turns out he's completely right. Just because he curbstomps them every since time they fight, doesn't mean they aren't strong on their own. Cut to Florsheim completely wiping the floor with the new enemy like they're weaklings.
* Emperor Pilaf and his two henchmen in ''[[Dragonball]]''. He was the series' first [[Big Bad]], but he later becomes an incompetent git who's plans are always easily foiled by Goku. {{spoiler|Of course, he also freed King Piccolo and, much later in GT, accidentally made Goku young again at the cost of the Earth with the [[Artifact of Doom|Black Star Dragon Balls]].}}
* Kurotowa in the ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of The Wind]]'' anime. In the manga, he only briefly ''appears'' to be one of these, before [[Not
* The pirates in ''[[Porco Rosso]]'' are positively polite:
{{quote| "Do you really want to take all fifteen of them hostage?"<br />
Line 65:
** [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|The Mugger]]
* ''[[Spider-Man]]'' has his share, though given that he's got the largest [[Rogues Gallery]] in Marvel, you'd expect as much. From the 80s British punk and punctuation-themed Typeface to the even more pathetic [[Grammar Nazi]] Spellcheck to ditzy [[Playboy Bunny]] the White Rabbit, who's so stupid that she had to hire ''actors'' to ''pretend'' to work for her, because nobody would for real. The Walrus is also pretty notable here: Spider-Man actually almost got his ass kicked by him because he couldn't stop laughing.
** The Walrus is a subversion actually. He's a deadly killer, but his costume and MO is so lame that people constantly think he's this. So he's more a [[Not
** Though a special prize has to go to Spidey villain the Spot, until he got a revamp to make him a major threat. During his first appearances, he was so pathetic that Spidey couldn't even be bothered to fight him, and instead, he falls over laughing at the mere sight of him.
*** He actually turned up in ''[[Spider-Man the Animated Series]]'' and kicked seven shades out of Spider-Man, IIRC.
* ''[[Daredevil]]'' arguably has it worse. The Matador ([[
** The Stilt Man. The Leap Frog. In the early days of his comic, Daredevil was the [[MST3K]] of comic book super heroes.
** The Gladiator got turned into a [[Not
* Bafflerog Rumplewhisker of "The Wizard's Tale" is the latest in a long line of really unpleasant people serving the forces of evil that keep their world in a state of permanent twilight (because they haven't yet found the [[MacGuffin]] to make it permanent night). Unfortunately, Bafflerog's spells tend to be much less evil than he intends, such as trying to call up a huge storm and getting a pleasant rain that breaks the drought on the town, summoning a hail of locusts and getting a shower of roast chickens instead, and making friends with the creature he's supposed to be torturing for the location of the [[MacGuffin]]. He also phrases his spells in the form of limericks.
* Killer Moth from ''[[Batman]]'': he started out as a pathetic bank robber who got apprehended very easily and eventually got tired of being picked on all the time and not being taken seriously. He made a [[Deal With the Devil]] and became Charaxes, a deadly cannibalistic moth creature that spits acid.
Line 85:
* Zodon from ''[[PS 238]]''. He ''is'' an [[Evil Genius]], and is both intelligent and competent...But he's also seven years old, too cynical to ever be truly malicious (possibly because comparatively victimless crimes like insider trading and '[[Noodle Incident|tampering in god's domain]]' means less detention time), and most importantly, is the comic's [[Chew Toy]]. Almost everything he tries his hand at will, at one point or another, fail horribly. Ironically, Zodon has proven himself much better at aiding the 'good' children (usually unwillingly or very reluctantly), {{spoiler|[[Villainous Rescue|and also saved the world]] against an [[Alien Invasion]] at one point.}}
* Bolphunga the Unrelenting goes back and forth on this. [[Depending On the Writer|Sometimes he's an inept blowhard, sometimes he's actually a skilled fighter and was actually needed when there was a jail break on Oa.]]
* Baby Face Finlayson from ''[[The Beano]]'' was originally a harmless villain, with his uselessness being [[Played for Laughs]], but his later appearances in Kev F Sutherland's strips were as a [[Not
Line 99:
* Doctor Evil from ''[[Austin Powers]]''. "Here's the plan: we get the warhead, and hold the world ransom for...ONE MILLION DOLLARS!"
** On the other hand, he does win several ransoms and come pretty close to destroying the world. He's even killed people, including {{spoiler|Felicity...at first}}.
*** Of course, the whole ransom thing was more to do with misinformation about global economics after his cryosleep than with being particularly harmless. When he tried to extort $100 billion after returning to the sixties in the second movie, he gets laughed at because that kind of money didn't '''''exist''''' back then. He seems to get the hang of things by the third movie, where he demands a ransom with [[Eleventy
*** He's a mix of this, [[Not
** Scott Evil is very much this. He just can't quite be villainous enough to fit in with the rest of the villains, at least until the third film.
{{quote| '''Dr Evil:''' ''(while talking down to Scott)'' You're the diet coke of evil. Just one calorie. Not evil enough!}}
Line 110:
== Literature ==
* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''The Last Hero,'' Evil Harry Dread has such a strong sense of professional ethics that he always chooses his guards for stupidity and designs his dungeons for easy escape. Of course, following the same professional ethics, he betrays Cohen and the Silver Horde at the first opportunity, but they're not too fussed about it. [[Card
* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' short story ''Day Off'', Harry is confronted by "Darth Wannabee" and his gang of amateur dark wizards. He's angry because Harry removed a curse he'd laid on a woman who'd annoyed him. Normally, this would be black magic, an incredibly serious matter and something the White Council punishes with death; their treatment of warlocks is one of the things Harry agrees with the council on, even if he thinks that they are doing ridiculously little to stop people from becoming them. But the "curse" was so weak Harry thought it had been a result of ''bad feng shui''. They run away after, on telling Harry to defend himself, he pulls out his gun. Later, they chucked a smoke bomb through his window, which at least shows they had the sense not to confront him again.
Line 118:
** Oddly, this is why minor villains from the comics were resurrected (Clock King, a Green Arrow villain, was actually made more competent on the TV show, and the Riddler only had two appearances in the comics, over a decade before the show). Characters from the comics were either too high budget to replicate (the comic having long since taken on sci-fi elements), or else were still too legitimately frightening to be turned camp, like Clayface and Two-Face. The bulk of the show's villains were created expressly for it.
** Somewhat subverted by, of all people, the Penguin! The Penguin was one of the few Batman villains more closely resembling mob bosses in the [[Dick Tracy]] style than murderous psychopaths of pulp era, and writers had been writing such characters for decades on television despite the limits of violence allowed. The Penguin's crimes were still over the top, but he was usually the ringleader in stories with multiple villains, and his crimes, while still campy, were typically more threatening than his fellows', like stealing a nuclear sub or engaging in brainwashing and blackmail. It's telling that the [[Dark Age]] [[Tim Burton]] appearance of the character surprised so many people, as many fans thought the Penguin needed little such change.
** [[Depending On the Writer]], they could turn out to be [[Not
* Harmony from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', so much so that Buffy outright laughed her ass off when told that Harmony could be a threat to her. ("Harmony has MINIONS?")
** Warren and his fellow members of the Trio started out this way. They were [[Big Bad Wannabe|Big Bad Wannabes]] that Buffy didn't take all that seriously. Warren's evolution into a genuine villain (so much so that he's now a sinister [[Mad Scientist]] type working for the government in the canonical season 8 comics) was a major part of his character arc, while Jonathan remained this trope perfectly and Andrew wound up carrying out a [[Heel Face Turn]] (though he was never really all that much of a heel to begin with. It was more of a case of [[Love Makes You Evil]] as he was obviously in love with Warren).
Line 137:
* ''BRUTALLY'' subverted in ''[[The Wire]]'', where most cops, lawyers, and other drug kingpins treat [[Complete Monster|Marlo Stanfield]] as a small threat who isn't much to worry about. By the fourth season, you've got AT LEAST 22 vacant houses filled up.
* After being demoted to producer in ''[[News Radio]]'', Dave decides to become, in his own words, "pure evil", and ruthlessly work his way back up to the top. But not by getting his replacement Lisa fired - oh, no, that would be wrong. His diabolical scheme involves letting Bill make a fool of himself on the air and thus getting himself fired, get Lisa discredited, and have himself put back on as news director. Unfortunately, [[Springtime for Hitler|Bill's antics garner the station's best ratings ever]], and Evil Dave was foiled forever.
* Josh Koscheck was all set to be the villain of ''[[The Ultimate Fighter]]'''s Season 12, having graduated the first season as a [[Jerkass]] who'd defeated the sympathetic Chris Leben and remained perpetually at the top echelon of his division (despite stinging losses to Georges St-Pierre and Paulo Thiago), and even openly admitted that he was playing the villain to hype the eventual title fight with St-Pierre...only to appear as one of the show's worst-ever coaches, gullible enough to abandon his intended first draft pick [[What an Idiot!|because he saw another fighter atop GSP's "draft list" in big bold letters]], an advocate of "mindless training", unable to impart his own winning ways onto his roster, encouraging his team to behave disrespectfully (culminating in the team banging on the wall separating the teams to taunt the losing Team GSP fighter), and whose attempted insults or pranks were almost always effortlessly brushed off, leaving Koscheck either looking like an inept high school jock stereotype or [[Foe Yay|oddly fixated on GSP's tight short-shorts and body, and wanting to get his hands on GSP's sixth-picked fighter]]. So much for [[Older and Wiser]]...
* Nevel of ''[[I Carly]]''. Starts out trying to steal a kiss from Carly, then upgrades to...trying to destroy iCarly. [[Sarcasm Mode|Great villain.]]
Line 175:
== Web Comics ==
* As the page quote illustrates, Jokerella has the dubious distinction of being the least competent member of [[The Non Adventures of Wonderella|Wonderella]]'s rogue's gallery. As Wonderella herself says on [http://nonadventures.com/cast/ the cast page]: "Jokerella would be The Little Villain Who Could if she could do anything."
* The Dark Warriors in ''[[
** King Steve is a scourge to his citizens and the nations he goes to war with, but the Light Warriors? ''No one is safe from them.''
* ''[[Adventurers (Webcomic)|Adventurers]]!'' is so full of harmless villains that it would be easier to list who isn't one.
Line 193:
* Lee Phillips of ''[[Kate Modern]]'' attempts to take revenge on Gavin and Tariq by...forcing them to play a treasure hunt game to retrieve their stolen software. He still manages to be a serious threat because there are other, decidedly less harmless villains who are also after the software.
* Dr. Poque from ''[[Mega 64]]'' is arguably this, while he did kidnap and lock Rocko, Derek, and Sean in his basement, he's to much of a [[Butt Monkey]] to be a real threat. Episode six of Version 2 amps this up to [[Woobie]] status.
* Dr. Horrible is pretty much harmless for the first two acts of ''[[Dr. Horribles Sing Along Blog]]''. Then, [[Smug Super]] Captain Hammer steals his would-be girlfriend and taunts him mercilessly about it. This drives Dr. Horrible to [[Not
* Although having a villainous outer appearance, [[Doctor Steel]]'s goals are really very positive and even kid-friendly. He just wants to make the world a better place (for himself).
* Marik from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged]]'' tries to be evil, but his evil plans usually involve things like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jnCcejkpjg stealing the Pharaoh's leather pants], asking to borrow Yugi's Millenium Puzzle and not returning it for three weeks, and [[Poke the Poodle|pushing him off a boat. Into the sea.]] And on top of that, he is ''very'' easily distracted.
Line 202:
== Western Animation ==
* Dr. Robotnik on the ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' version of the show makes incredibly inept robots, repeatedly has crying fits, and is sometimes too distracted with himself to notice that his plan isn't working.
** Granted a lot of Robotnik's harmless streak is implied to be solely because of [[Invincible Hero|Sonic]]. Many episodes show Sonic encountering civilians that have been [[Beware the Silly Ones|successfully terrorized or enslaved by Robotnik without his help]], while in other episodes he actually manages to pull off [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] plans that temporarily [[Not
* Bling Bling Boy in ''[[Johnny Test]]''. Johnny is both his archenemy and his only friend. Most of his evil ambitions are done solely for the purpose of getting a date with Susan.
* Dr. Drakken in ''[[Kim Possible]]'' is pretty much the mascot of this trope, if only because that show's [[Periphery Demographic]] makes it so self-aware. You get the feeling that he and Shego aren't even trying to harm Kim, just keep her occupied. He becomes a [[Not
** This is because Drakken is an [[Expy]] of [[Austin Powers|Doctor Evil]], with Shego taking Scott's place as the more competent one who points out the other's ineffectiveness with snarky remarks.
* The Swiper in ''[[Dora the Explorer]]'': any villain who can be foiled by saying "Swiper, no swiping!" isn't going to give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money.
Line 211:
** There was an episode where he stole the friendship bracelets for friendship day. When he found out, he did a [[Heel Face Turn]] for the rest of the episode and helped the rest of the cast find all the bracelets.
** There was also the [[Christmas Special]], where Dora and Boots took a trip to bring a present for Santa. Along the way, Swiper swipes it, but does a [[Heel Face Turn]] and returns it when he's told what he had taken.
** Under the theory he is only harrassing Dora [[It Amused Me|for fun]] and [[My God, What Have I Done?|becomes repetant whenever he actually does something]] [[Even Evil Has Standards|truly callous]], Swiper could perhaps be considered more a [[Screwy Squirrel]] than an outright villain.
* Glowface from ''[[The Xs (Animation)|The Xs]]'' is one such villain, he even gets upset when his monologues are interrupted, and is perfectly willing to put off villain chores [[Villains Out Shopping|to play video games]].
* The Monarch in ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' almost qualifies. When he isn't psychologically damaged, being pushed around by the higher-ups in the Guild of Calamitous Intent, and being inept at commanding his henchmen, he can, in fact, be quite deadly. The trouble is, he's so bad at arching that his nemesis, Dr. Venture, doesn't even consider him a real threat. Later seasons show, however, that The Monarch can, indeed, be a very threatening villain, if he bothered to extend his goals beyond being a pain in the ass to Dr. Venture.
Line 230:
** Also, the villains of the same name in ''[[Powerpuff Girls Z]]''.
* In [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney's]] ''[[Aladdin (Disney)|Aladdin]]'' sequel ''Return of Jafar'' and the TV series, there's [[Punny Name|Abis Mal]]. His patheticness is particularly compounded by being an [[Expy]] of the legendary loser, George Costanza, on ''[[Seinfeld]]'', since Jason Alexander plays both roles.
** He does get at least one [[Not
*** He also went back in time and rewrote Agrabah's entire history in one episode so that he could be Sultan.
** Aladdin also occasionally had to deal with an inept thief named Amin Damoola (nicknamed 'Butterfingers'). The only time Butterfingers was a serious threat was once, when was using magical artifacts supplied by Mozenrath, who had essentially replaced Jafar as Aladdin's main nemesis.
Line 237:
** He doesn't come across as all that harmless so long as Raven isn't around; in his introduction, he's actually winning against the Titans and usually puts up a pretty good fight until Raven talks to him and he falls apart. If she wasn't around, he'd be anything but harmless.
* In ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'', Jack Spicer pretty much fits this trope, to the point where other villains used his name as a slang term to describe this trope. Jack-Bots, indeed.
** Like others on this list, he becomes a [[Not
* The villain Killface from ''[[Frisky Dingo]]'' is a good example. He builds a machine that can destroy Earth but freaks out and tries to stop it when someone activates it. Killface also shows some love for Earth, especially its pre-Colombian pottery and literature (but not the hip-hop). Killface becomes best friends with his worst enemy (who is disguised) and refuses to kill him, even after finding out his true identity. Killface has no problem brutally killing his "employees", though. The hero, Xander Crews, actually does more evil and harmful things than Killface.
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' has the completely harmless Dr. Doofenshmirtz. The closest he came to actually harming anyone was building an invention that would destroy anyone who couldn't make up their minds.
** In his defense, he's facing a [[Badass]] [[
** The man was once defeated by a potted plant he hung up because Perry was busy. It doesn't '''get''' any more harmless than that!
** He also once developed a device for insulting whales ([[Freudian Excuse|because, years earlier, a whale stole his girlfriend]]). Perry actually ''left'', which caused Doofenshmirtz to chase him around, demanding that his plot be foiled.
Line 272:
* [[He-Man and The Masters of The Universe (Animation)|He-Man and The Masters of The Universe]] villain Skeletor, despite having a face that Standards & Practices must have had fits over, was thoroughly incompetent. He was so feeble at villainy, in fact, that the show resorted to two replacement villains: King Hiss of the Snake-Men, and Hordak, who suffered severe [[Villain Decay]] after his introduction. Neither were exactly scary themselves, but miles ahead of Skeletor.
** [[Word of God]] is that the writers felt sorry for him, so they started writing stories where he'd team-up with He-Man against some outside threat, just so he could win occasionally and not look like a complete tool all the time.
** Subverted in the 2000-era re-imagining. While Skeletor's still a [[Card
* Mister Smarty Smarts of ''[[Spliced]]'', though there have been a few times that he has been a genuine threat to the other inhabitants of the Island.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwAKQ9hGLuY Harley Quinn] of ''[[Batman:
** Subverted in ''Mad Love'' where Batman actually admits that Harley Quinn was closer to killing him than the Joker ever was. Considering that this is the Joker, that says a lot!
* [[Jerkass Woobie|The Ice King]] in ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]]'' certainly has the potential to be a great threat, being a powerful magic user but constantly thwarted by [[A Boy and His X|a boy and his dog]] doesn't do much for his reputation. His defeats are often so pathetic that they're depressing, and in the end, it's almost always Finn beating up an old man.
Line 282:
{{quote| "Plankton. One percent evil. Ninety-nine percent hot gas."}}
** The E.V.I.L organization, which stands for [[Fun With Acronyms|"Every Villain Is Lemons"]], The extent of their villainy is shining flashlights into boats at [[Make Out Point|Makeout Reef]]<ref>Good times, goooood times...</ref> and making fun of the young people.
* The Urpneys of ''[[The Dreamstone]]''. It takes a rather incompetant bunch of mooks to make a [[Sugar Bowl]] world like The Land Of Dreams come off as unneccessarily rough on them. Even the times they [[Not
* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "''Owl's Well That Ends Well''" involves usually-good dragon cub Spike temporarily becoming an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]. Spike is obviously stooping pretty low when he {{spoiler|tries to make it look like Owlowiscious killed a mouse}}, but gets caught in the act way too quickly to do any major harm.
** {{spoiler|Of course, Spike ''does'' become a [[Not
{{reflist}}
Line 292:
[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Harmless Villain]]
[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
| |||