Harmless Villain: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{quote|''"And when she arrives, I shall squirt her...With '''CITRIC''' ACID!"''|'''Jokerella''', ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]'', [http://nonadventures.com/2007/09/29/for-whom-the-cell-tolls/ "For Whom The CELL Tolls"]}}

 

 

 

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.

[[Evil Is Cool|But, then again, where's the fun in that?]]

 

 

The Harmless Villain might possess an impressive array of powers, but they'll end up using it with all the effectiveness of [[Misapplied Phlebotinum]], or have a glaring and [[Achilles' Heel|easily exploited weaknesses]] that bring them to their knees just in the nick of time.

 

 

 

 

Keep in mind, though, that sometimes they become a [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]] later on. Even [[Team Rocket Wins]] every once in a while.

 

{{examples}}

 

* He may be more malicious in the anime than in the games, but King Dedede is still pretty much as harmless in ''[[Kirby Right Back At Ya]]'' as he is in the game franchise. The only time he does threaten to hurt someone (other than Kirby or Whispy Woods) is when he orders the [[Monster of the Week|Dedede Stone]] to stomp Tiff - which would've resulted in her death if it weren't for her knight in shining armor, [[Magnificent Bastard|Meta Knight]], coming to her rescue.

** Speaking of Meta Knight, some of Dedede's Demon Beasts / monsters actually managed to hurt him - which was not what Dedede wanted.

 

 

* 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.

** Also the R** Also the Riddler...[[Depending on the Writer|sometimes]]. Nowadays, the Riddler is often portrayed as a fiendishly clever yet endearingly incompetent villain.

**** Recently though, the Riddler, due to a year long coma, has lost his compulsion, and gone into business for himself as an extremely successful (if not always correct) private detective.

** The Joker is notable for occasionally playing with this, likely for his own amusement. On any given day, you don't know if the Joker that Batman is facing is a sadistic [[Monster Clown]] who'll hold the city ransom and threaten to burn down the whole place, or a loony who concocts an elaborate (*ahem*) [[Batman Gambit]] just to hit Batman in the face with a pie.

* Marvel's alternate-universe ''[[Squadron Supreme]]'' has Pinball, a guy whose power consisted of inflating his green jumpsuit into a ball and rolling into people.

* Back in the 80's, ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'' had occasional skirmishes with Fabian Stankowicz, AKA The Mechano-Marauder, a lottery winner turned power-suit-wearing supervillain. From the very beginning, the Avengers never took him seriously: in his first assault, [[Iron Man]] considered him so low a threat that he ''turned down'' several offers of assistance from the other Avengers. However, Fabian's definitive low point was when he attacked them during a taping of ''Late Night With David Letterman'' and briefly managed to gain the upper hand...only to be knocked out ''[http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/avengers2.jpg by Letterman himself.]'' Eventually, [[Captain America (comics)]] offered him a spot on the Avengers support crew, mostly to keep him from endangering himself further.

* Zodon from ''[[PS238]]''. 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.]]

** [[Depending on the Writer]], they could turn out to be [[Not-So-Harmless Villain|Not so Harmless Villains]], especially in those early episodes. Bare in mind most episodes ''do'' end with a cliffhanger in which the heroes are placed in a [[Death Trap]] of an often quite violent nature; even if they always escape it in the next one, that doesn't mean the villains are harmless, only that Batman and Robin are just that awesome / lucky / [[Boring Invincible Hero|invincible]]. The Riddler in particular is a giggling '''psychopath''' worse than even [[The Joker]] (who is not as harmless as he is popularly remembered either, though) and is the one who most clearly enjoys his attempts to kill the duo horribly. [[Rule of Funny]] and failure is all that stands between most of these characters and The [[Complete Monster]] Show.

* 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?")

** Also, most vampires. They act tough, and do regularly murder people, but only handful last more than one appearance before being dusted, posing little threat to Buffy.

** Spike. [[Badass Decay|Oh God, Spike.]] He was a genuine threat when he first appeared, but after he got the [[Restraining Bolt|chip]] in his head, the idea that he might actually do anything that made a difference was laughable.

 

== Video Games ==

** His [[Super Mario Bros. (animation)|cartoon counterpart]], King Koopa, definitely does. He is regularly incapable of even capturing the princess, never mind taking care of Mario and his friends. The only times he is ever effective is when the plot demands it; the heroes [[Idiot Plot|suddenly fall for traps and get defeated by things that they could've easily taken care of before]]. They always break out and foil Koopa's ridiculous plots in the end, though.

* Pete, as characterized in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', is a bumbling oaf who never inflicts any lasting harm on either the characters or the worlds they fight to save, as opposed to Maleficent, who, in the first game, {{spoiler|turned the main character and his best friend against one another and led them all down the path that would separate them and the girl they were fighting over for several years}}, and was likely responsible for the destruction of several worlds. This is also in contrast to his characterization as the Ghost of Christmas Future in "A Disney Christmas Carol", over a decade earlier, where he laughed diabolically as he unmasked himself and sent Scrooge falling into the fiery pits of hell.

** The tougher Pete is more or less the original concept of Pete, who's often as tough as ever when battling Mickey, Goofy, and others in the comics (even today). He clearly thinks nothing of trying to kill our heroes with swords, guns, clubs, and other weapons, and often is only stopped by dumb luck.

* 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.

** During his first appearances in the Marik's Evil Council Videos, Dartz manages to be even more pathetic. Then, he suddenly becomes an [[Expy]] of [[Perfect Hair Forever|Coiffio]] whose [[The Unintelligible|unfortunate accent]] causes both his henchmen and the audience to not be sure of whether his plans are the standard card game shenanigans or [[Squick|something much worse]].

 

 

* The Hacker in ''[[Cyberchase]]'' is usually a harmless villain, though he does occasionally try to destroy Motherboard. Same goes for his henchmen, Buzz and Delete, along with newer villains like Baskerville, Wicked, and [[Ascended Fanboy|Ledge]].

* Duke Igthorn in ''[[Adventures of the Gummi Bears]]'' was mostly cartoonishly harmless. At one point, he had captured Granni Bear, and was trying to extract the recipe for the [[Super Serum|Gummi Berry Juice]] from her. Rather than torture, he actually ''tickles her with feathers'' until she gives in. Thankfully, it was an incorrect recipe, proving that the [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]] (with feathers) is still useless. However, if one looks deeper, one can gain some respect for the man; he seems to keep a legion of superstrong ogres twice his size in line by mere force of personality, is never seen not wearing a suit of chainmail (which is HEAVY), and, at one point, knocks out two armed guards with his bare hands.

** Since the Box Ghost (apart from that time with Pandora) never seems to have plots more complicated than "throw stuff around to scare people", Danny's probably just being a bully by attacking him at all.

** His [[Future Badass]] self from [[The Movie]] on the other hand...

** 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]]'', 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.

* 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.

* Lucius Heinous VII on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' is pretty much an incompetent version of [[Satan]]. Though, while he's largely ineffective, the fact that he keeps people like [[Enfante Terrible|Heloise]] and [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Molotov]] under his thumb is probably a sign that he's doing something right.

* The Shredder in the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'' TV series after the initial story arc of the first season. Only in that one though; the other media tends to show him as a real threat.

** Mostly because they were just as bad at being good as they were at being bad.

* [[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.