Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Difference between revisions

[[File:sympathetic-ineffectual-villain batman-carpenter 5195.jpg|link=Batman|frame|"No! [[Kryptonite Factor|Metal handcuffs - my only weakness]]!"]]

 

 

A potential villain who is consistently a failure or never gets the respect that he thinks he deserves, and may even be angry that the heroes don't take him seriously.

 

{{examples}}

* Mousse from ''[[Ranma ½]]'' is a loser whose plots against Ranma go only so far before backfiring spectacularly. He's usually played as an unrepentant jerk, although maybe once a season, he'd get a moment of quiet reflection for the audience to sympathize with him—right before going back to his old ways, naturally.

** Both the ineffectual and sympathetic aspects are ironic, because Mousse is the most ruthlessly homicidal of Ranma's regular rivals. Kuno simply wants to humiliate Ranma and get both Akane and "the pig-tailed girl"; his weapon is just a bokken. Ryoga initially enters the series with an apparent intent to kill, but settles down for pretty much just wanting to steal Akane away and be able to claim that he's better than Ranma after the early [[Martial Arts and Crafts|Martial Arts Figure Skating]] story. By contrast, Mousse spends most of the series willing to do just about anything to kill Ranma, routinely using bladed and impaling weapons and attacking with ambushes. He even comments once on being willing to slip poisonous mushrooms into Ranma's food.

** {{spoiler|Or Stark is her [[Imaginary Friend]]. He states for both of them that they've been together so long that he can't even remember who is the real one anymore.}}

** Ukitake even lectures the girl on how her determination is admirable, but she simply lacks the ability to 'fight' him properly (i.e take the sword back). She fires a [[Ki Attack|cero]], he deflects it with his [[Nonchalant Dodge|hand]]. No wonder she was pissed off.

** Hannyabal Initially presented as [[The Starscream]], but eventually shows that [[The Determinator|he has it where it counts]] when the going gets tough.

** The [[Laughably Evil]] [[Gonk]], Foxy the Silver Fox, particularly in the anime where he gets more screen time. He's relatively [[Weak but Skilled]] and has only built up such a large crew because he won them in games stacked in his favor, but they seem to genuinely enjoy serving under him because of the fun carnival atmosphere of the Davy Back Fights.

** The Fake Straw Hats from the Return to Sabaody Arc. This small group of pirates led by a guy named "Three-Tongued" Demaro Black (the only member deemed dangerous enough to have a bounty) had an idea that seemed good on paper, they’d pretend to be the Straw Hat crew, hoping that group’s reputation would help them recruit a decent crew.<ref>There are indeed stories about [[Real Life]] novice pirates taking the names of well-known ones in order to gain notoriety, as before the invention of photography, few could tell two groups of pirates apart.</ref> On one hand, this worked at first, and they managed to recruit several hundred competent pirates, including the Caribou Pirates. But they ran into trouble very quickly for several reasons. One, they didn’t look like the Straw Hats at all. To put it this way, [https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Demaro_Black this is Black] and [https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Monkey_D._Luffy this is Luffy]; the other fakes were no better. Possibly justified, as they barely knew what the real Straw Hats looked like, failing to recognize members of the real crew at least twice; they even made fools of themselves trying to intimidate the real Nami and Usopp by claiming to be the Straw Hats. Worse, they advertised by placing fliers in public places, making them targets of several dangerous enemies of the Straw Hats, including the hulking Marine enforcer Sentamaru, a group of Pacifistas, several rank and file Marines and bounty hunters, and for that matter, the Caribou Pirates, once they figured out it had been a ruse. Most ironically, the two impersonating Robin and Chopper helped the real ones a great deal; after the fake ones were caught by a group of Marines, the real ones were able to throw off pursuit for a while. Not to mention, they weren’t very good fighters either. While there was ''one'' "hero confronts his imposter" moment in the story, it was lackluster, with Luffy belting Black and his gang into unconsciousness a single Haki, never realizing they were anything more than common muggers.

** Uh, Spandam. Seriously, while this guy isn't the only reason the viewers will start to wonder if C9 is worthy of their reputation (and what exactly the Marines' guidelines are for recruits), he ''is'' a big reason. He's clumsy (a [[Running Gag]] involved him spilling coffee on himself during moments of excitement), [[Dirty Coward| cowardly]], short tempered, and all too often, just plain dumb. Overlapping with [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]] he could be blamed ultimately for deaths of countless Marines; his cruel abuse of Robin during the Water 7 Saga (breaking a promise to the Straw Hats in the process) made her so enraged that he was the first victim of her dreaded "Clutch" attack (where she uses her Devil Fruit powers to cause her arms to sprout on the victim's body and break his spine.) Ironically, he survived, but [[It Gets Easier|this first time made it far more easier for Robin]] afterwards, and since then, whole armies have perished from her Clutch.

** Blueno is another of those reasons. To his credit, he's not stupid, nor is he a bad fighter, but he has an odd eccentricity (for lack of a better term) which prevents him from believing anything that he cannot confirm with his own senses, never trusting ''any'' sort of third-party information. Thus, during the Enies Lobby Arc, he had been duly warned of Luffy's skills and the gumption the Straw Hat Captain had in intending to declare war on the World Government itself, and nonetheless confronted Luffy alone. Luffy at that point had mastered his Gear Third technique, but barely needed it, as he mopped the floor with Blueno using "only" Gear Two.

** Charlotte Daifuku, one of Big Mom’s sons and a high-ranking (for some odd reason) officer in her army, and thus an antagonist during the Whole Cake Island Arc. A man who values physical strength among all else, he has an uncontrollable temper, a trait that made his attack on the Thousand Sunny almost laughable. In his attempt to bring Carrot down after she assumed her [[One-Winged Angel| Sunlong form]], he used his Devil Fruit power to create a giant, sword-wielding genie - who, in its efforts to hit Carrot with its weapon, inadvertently sunk about half of Daifuku’s fleet, never hitting Carrot even once.

* Buaku from ''[[Dominion Tank Police]]'' and his sidekicks, the Puma sisters. They've always been wannabe [[Magnificent Bastard]]s, but they were slightly more competent in the manga. Granted, their failures are rarely their own fault, discounting their lack of foresight.

* ''[[Heavy Metal L-Gaim]]'s'' Gavlet Gabre is a particularly jarring example. He's introduced as the primary rival, but never once defeats the protagonist, Daba Myroad. {{spoiler|During the final battle at Sveto, he fails to defeat the unimportant and generic villain Rockley Ron, which makes the later the sole villain who makes it out of the show without being captured or killed.}}

** Starting Season 3, the show took a [[Darker and Edgier]] theme and this sort of villain was rare, but there were still a couple. In Season 4, there was Sorano, another Obelisk snob who saw Judai and didn't see past the red blazer. (Some people just don't learn.) Not only that, his Horus deck seemed like it was copied from a magazine, aside from one part of the strategy that needed an anime-only card. He only became a true threat after he was possessed by Trueman.

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's|Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds]]'': continued the trend, but not as much. As early as the second episode there was Uryu, a hoodlum who was sent to Satellite for causing trouble, who lost a duel to Yusei because he ''didn't know how his own card worked''. Aki had two opponents that qualified in the Fortune Cup alone, Jill deLauncebeaux, and Kodo Kinomiya (the second one a guy who bordered on [[Stupid Evil]], seeing as he knew he was dueling a powerful [[Reality Warper]] and spent the whole duel flinging insults at her.) In the second season there was the D-Wheel thief Cid (who rigged his [[Death Trap]] so that he wouldn't fall victim to it, only to almost be done in because he rigged it ''badly'') and the [[Loan Shark]] Garome. (Jack Atlas is a guy who grew up on Satellite and would later face the nightmarish metal stress of facing the Earthbound Gods, survived it all with a grin. It's not like common crooks like them are going to intimidate or panic him.)

 

* [[Batman]] has a rogue's gallery with some of the best villains in comic history. Sadly, he also has some of the lamest:

*** One issue of ''Batman Adventures'' takes this and runs with it for all it's worth. The Riddler decides to try one last time to beat Batman, vowing that if Batman solves the riddle and defeats him, he'll give up crime forever. The riddle he comes up with really ''is'' good, but Batman's busy with multiple other villains and essentially decides to not spend time on the Riddler, and catch him after the fact if necessary. He catches him anyway, completely by chance, and admits as much to the Riddler when asked how he solved the puzzle. Satisfied that he outwitted Batman, even though he got caught, Riddler sings all the way back to Arkham.

** Similarly, the fact that the Penguin is perfectly sane may have contributed to his mutation into a gray market white-collar criminal who Batman is grudgingly willing to tolerate as a source of information on the criminal underworld.

** Humpty-Dumpty, who is so [[Anti-Villain|delightfully inoffensive that even calling him a villain is a big stretch]]. Even when one learns that there's a good reason that he's in Arkham, one kinda feels sorry for him; he has an obsession with fixing things by taking them apart and putting them back together again, because his ''whole life'' has been [[Deus Angst Machina|a string of disasters]], one after another. Unfortunately, his attempts to fix things only make them run ''worse''. His attempts to fix stuff like a subway train, an elevator, and a clock tower have lead to people getting hurt or even ''killed''. And, of course, he murdered his abusive grandmother when he tried to take ''her'' apart and put her together again.

** Condiment King, an absurd parody of gimmick villains, is this trope [[Lampshade Hanging|with a lampshade]]. Originally introduced as an original character for ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' where he wasn't a villain, but a brainwashed pawn of the Joker, he eventually emigrated to mainstream comics as a real one. Just dangerous enough to be worthy of Batman and Robin's attention, he has at least the ''potential'' to be a real threat (think "mustard gas", for just one example). However, in practice, he repeatedly gets defeated in a single page. Because he's an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, he keeps getting parole.

** Jenna Duffy, aka The Carpenter (see trope image), was a member of Tweedledee and Tweedledum's "Wonderland Gang", [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|but had the sense to get out of supervillainy and to work exclusively as...an actual carpenter.]] Her specialty (who do you think ''builds'' all those [[Death Trap|deathtraps]] in Gotham?) can still get her into trouble, however.

*** Amazingly enough, however, Jenna manages to become a [[Not So Harmless Villain]] ''and'' a three-dimensional character in ''[[Batman: Streets of Gotham]]''. When she is double crossed by her employer (a crime boss called the Director) and realizes he never intended to pay her and that his scheme to kill Batman requires ''her'' death as well, she turns against him and his gang, taking them all down in what could best be described as an R-rated version of ''[[Home Alone]]''. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|(And yes, she kills one thug ''with a nail gun''.)]] Batman later advises her to leave Gotham, and she does - for a while.

** Signalman got his start as a crook who figured he needed some gimmick to be successful, so taking inspiration from the Bat-Signal, he embarked on crimes where, like the Riddler, he left clues for the hero. But signals just don't grab a fan's attention as much as riddles do, and his costume looked like some kid scribbled all over it.

** Calendar Man started out as a lame villain. Julian Gregory Day (his name is ''three puns in one'') committed crimes on holidays with an appropriate theme. (For instance, dressing as Uncle Sam on Independence Day and robbing historic museums.) And he made really bad puns doing it. In recent years, however, he's [[Took a Level in Badass|become more serious]] and is seen in darker stories, becoming a ''little'' better and less of a joke.

** Charlie Brown, [[Sarcasm Mode|the notorious]] Kite Man. ([["Not Making This Up" Disclaimer|Not making this up]], he was a lame [[Shout Out]] to ''[[Peanuts]]'' who even crashed into a tree in one story and yelled "Rats!") Obsessed with kites, he committed crimes with a rocket-powered hang glider, until he was killed off and [[Old Shame|never mentioned in that continuity again.]] Still, the ''[[Harley Quinn (TV series)|Harley Quinn]]'' cartoon has made him, while lame, [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap| a good deal more entertaining.]]

** Poka-Dot Man, a guy in a bodysuit covered with multicolored poka-dots. Truthfully, this guy had a lot of pretty cool gadgets, but his ridiculous costume and name made it very hard for ''anyone'' to take him seriously.

* ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' had a few, most from [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]]:

*** Finally, the most recent version was named Edgar Fullerton Yeung [[Don't Explain The Joke|(get it?)]] who became a regular in [[Harley Quinn]]'s own title. The [[Denser and Wackier|nature of the title]] made him more acceptable when the Chinese background was removed, but he was still a truly incompetent villain who was much happier when Harley hired him as a handyman.

* Most bad guys on this list are lame because they have lame powers. However, that was not the case with the Composite Superman. Originally an out-of-work stuntman named Joseph Meach, he tried to get back into the spotlight by setting up a tank of water on a street in Metropolis, then diving into it from the roof of a building; unfortunately, the defective tank was leaking, and he’d have been killed had Superman not shown up and saved him. Superman also got him an honest job as a janitor at the Superman Museum, but being around superhero memorabilia just made him bitter and resentful. Until, that is, one stormy night where he was sweeping the room displaying wax statues of the [[Legion of Super-Heroes]]. Lightning crashed through the window and struck the display, and somehow, [[Lightning Can Do Anything| Meach gained the powers of every member of the Legion]] (that’s right, ''all 22 of them''; keep in mind, this includes Superboy, Supergirl, and two heroes just as strong as they are, Mon-El and Ultra-Boy); it also caused him to snap and become obsessed with defeating Superman and Batman. Now, with powers like this, Meach could have become one of the most dangerous villains in existence, but sadly, he couldn’t use them very well. Being something of an [[Attention Whore]] , his first scheme involved creating a series of disasters for Superman and Batman to attend to, but he deliberately sabotaged them in order to humiliate the heroes, and then [[Engineered Heroics| fixing them himself.]] He wasted so much time doing so, he didn't realize that his powers were temporary, and eventually wore off. Indeed, the only good thing the Composite Superman did was in his second appearance, where a [[Heel Realization]] led to him defending his two foes from another villain called Xan, [[Heroic Sacrifice| dying in the attempt]]. Ironically, this last act granted led to Meach being honored with his own statue in the Museum, the inscription stating he [[Redemption Equals Death| "lived a villain, but died a hero."]]

* The [[Marvel Universe]]'s Toad is a classic example of this. He has [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|second-rate powers]], a stupid nickname, and an even stupider real name (Mortimer Toynbee). Understandably, he hated himself. However, the first ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' live action film, with the character played by Ray Park, changed him into a wry villain with more self-respect and redefined powers that are actually scary in their deadliness—managing to become his ''own'' [[Canon Immigrant]] (in particular, his [[Ultimate Marvel]] incarnation is much more badass than his first one).

* The Shocker from ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'':

** Another time he teamed up with fellow loser the Trapster (see below), had Spidey at their mercy and only didn't kill him due to suddenly getting a call from their boss informing them that their pay would be doubled if Spidey lived. Ever the pragmatist, Shocker accepted though he remarked that if he killed him, he would "save a fortune on therapy bills".

** While the "regular" Shocker has his moments of competence and [[Not So Harmless]], his [[Ultimate Marvel]] counterpart consistently fits this trope.

* Rhino sometimes gets this treatment. Recently, he underwent a [[Heel Face Turn]], but [[Failure Is the Only Option|this is doomed to fail]]

** There was a two issue story about him in a Spider-Man spinoff focusing on the various other characters in Spidey's life, with his idiocy being what makes him so pathetic. However, he ends up becoming super-intelligent via super science and ends up getting the girl and becoming the strongest crime boss in New York, along with figuring out Spider-Man's true identity. He goes back to being dumb, however, when he ends up being miserable by not being able to connect with people anymore.

* Though the rat creatures in the comic ''[[Bone]]'' are quite fearsome in force, the nameless two most commonly seen around the valley where the protagonists live are pretty pathetic on their own. They want to eat the story's protagonist, but they do themselves more harm than anyone else with their bumbling. Their constant bickering over whether to bake the Bones into a quiche is also quite endearing.

** A trilogy of junior novel sequels even have them as two of the chosen ''heroes''. Well, more like [[Token Evil Teammate]]s, really.

* [[The DCU]] villain Dr. Light started out as a formidable foe capable of taking on the Justice League single-handed, but was a victim of severe [[Villain Decay]] in the [[The Bronze Age of Comic Books|Bronze Age]] and [[Post-Crisis]] eras, mostly notable for being repeatedly defeated by kids. And while defeat at the hands of the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]] isn't all that shameful, he was ''also'' humiliated by Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, a team of non-powered pre-teens! That all changed with his [[Rape as Drama|rape-the-wife]] moment in ''[[Identity Crisis]]''.

* The entire [[Legion of Doom|Injustice League]], which consisted of Major Disaster, Cluemaster, Clock King, Big Sir, Multi-Man, and Mighty Bruce. Individually, they were talented in some area, if lacking in others. As a group...they're still a bunch of losers. Here's how bad their luck is—while staying in Europe, they happened to attend the same French as a Second Language class as the Justice League. And this was following a bank robbery that was thwarted by the fact that none of them could effectively communicate the idea of "This is a stickup" in French.

* Bolphunga the Unrelenting, from ''[[Green Lantern]]''. A [[Large Ham]] villain, notable for using an axe against power-ring wielding space cops, and for attempting to take on [[Genius Loci|Mogo]].

* Turk, the pettiest of the petty hoods in Harlem, in the ''[[Daredevil]]'' comics.

* The pirates and Romans in the ''[[Asterix]]'' books.

* ''[[Iznogoud]] the Infamous'', the ever-scheming but hapless Grand Vizier to the Caliph, who merely wants "to become Caliph instead of the Caliph."

*** It was also noted in a comic about one of Marvel's superprisons that since Batroc's abilities all come from a lifetime of training, people like him are the most dangerous in supervillain prisons, as most of the villains either have their powers sealed or their tech taken away. Another name dropped in that vein is the Kangaroo, of all people.

*** Even ''[[Batman]]'' himself commends Batroc on his speed and skills after defeating him (off-panel) in Volume 4 of ''[[JLA-Avengers]]''.

* [http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/8/81/Carface.JPG Carface], who [[Huntress]] [http://media.photobucket.com/image/birds%20of%20prey,%20carface/airhikec001/blog/comics/pages/BoP119_c-carface.jpg made quick work of.]

* Rainbow Raider in ''[[The Flash]]'' became this, once going so far as to attend a villainy motivational seminar in a futile effort to stop losing all the time. Neron once sent him an invitation to his [[Not So Harmless|upgrades-for-souls meeting]] just so the Trickster could steal it from him.

* Asbestos Lady is a villain who fits this Trope in hindsight. This gal was a thief who thought it was a good idea to fight the Human Torch (not Johnny Storm, the original one) with an asbestos costume. This made perfect sense back in [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]] before anyone knew that asbestos was a dangerous carcinogen. Later in the modern era, it was confirmed she had died of cancer, done in by her own costume, and that she had been secretly funded by the U.S. government to combat the perceived threat superhumans posed, sort of a precursor to the Superhuman Registration Act during the ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]''. In effect, poor Asbestos Lady had become [[Aesop Collateral Damage]] in a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|precautionary tale]] of how a corrupt government could ruin the lives of its own employees for selfish personal agendas.

 

* Peter Lorre in ''[[M]]''. And again in ''[[Casablanca]]''. And in ''[[The Maltese Falcon]]''. And ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace]]''. In fact, [[Peter Lorre]] in general.

** Exception: he was pretty unsympathetic and effective in ''[[Casino Royale 1954]]''. And as Mister Moto, he's a two-fisted detective hero.

** Further exception: he's [[Playing Against Type|the hero]] in the film of ''The Mask of Dimitrios'' (aka ''[[A Coffin for Dimitrios]]''), and Sydney Greenstreet, who was usually the more competent villain to Lorre's ISV, is the ISV of this film.

* Inspector Clouseau, originally intended as an incompetent version of [[Inspector Javert]] in the original ''[[The Pink Panther]]'', managed to be so much more sympathetic than protagonist Charles "The Phantom" Lytton that he was retooled into the hero of the film's sequels.

** In the following film, ''A Shot in the Dark'', Clouseau transmitted this ISV condition to his boss, Chief Inspector Dreyfus (soon to become the ''former'' Chief Inspector Dreyfus). Dreyfus is actually a good detective who, it's implied, would never have gone [[Ax Crazy]] [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|if it hadn't been for Clouseau.]] After his [[Face Heel Turn]], poor Dreyfus has to look on helplessly as Clouseau survives all of Dreyfus' numerous murder attempts solely due to [[The Fool|the dumbest of dumb luck.]]

* [[Vincent Price]] as Shelby Carpenter in ''Laura.'' This is how his ''own girlfriend'' sums him up:

{{quote|"He's no good, but he's what I want. I'm not a nice person, Laura, and neither is he. He knows I know he's just what he is. He also knows that I don't care. We belong together because we're both weak and can't seem to help it. That's why I know he's capable of murder.<ref>Keep in mind that she says he's ''capable'' of murder. {{spoiler|He doesn't actually do it.}}</ref> He's like me."}}

* When it comes to [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game]], few excel at it better than the [[Predator]] - it is [[Planet of Hats| their “hat” as a species]]. But the Predator in the aptly named movie ''[[Prey]]'' seems to have no plan on what to do should the prey try to beat it at its own game. Sure, it slaughters the French voyageurs who are after Naru and Naru's unfortunate brother, but it seems this is because they make the mistake everyone else does when up against a Predator, trying to fight it directly. As a skilled hunter herself, Naru quickly learns that the only way to survive against a monster like this is to use its own strategy against it, and despite the Predator possessing superior technology (the movie takes place in 1719) and hunting skills common of its people, Naru proves the better hunter, outwitting and outsmarting it until she leads it into her own deadly trap.

* Biff Tannen in ''[[Back to the Future]]''; for all his his sadism and macho posturing, Biff was nothing but a wimp with a glass jaw, his rotten temper often causing him to make mistakes he could have avoided - a lot of fans pointed out that he was ''lucky'' George humiliated him, he might have been doing hard time in prison for rape otherwise. And ''that'' is just the ''first'' movie, in the ''second'', his older self's attempt to change the timeline gets himself [[Ret-Gone]], while the ''third'' shows that his great-grandfather was just as dumb, making his incompetence hereditary.

 

* Prince (later King) Korin, [[The Dragon]] {{spoiler|(although the [[Big Bad]] dies first)}} of [[Nightrunner|Lynn Flewelling's]] ''Tamír Trilogy''...although, especially towards the end, he ends up less sympathetic than merely pitiful. In real-world history, kings like him tended to end up with the sobriquet of "The Unready".

* While Sloan in the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' has certainly done some terrible things—killing a man, selling out his village to man-eating [[mook]]s, and bullying the protagonist in his younger years—it's revealed that he did everything out of love for his daughter, and so lies on a fuzzy line between this trope and [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]].

* Toward the end of the sixth ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' novel and through all of the seventh, Draco Malfoy has this role. He's pretty much forced into more overtly villainous acts (apart from being a male [[Alpha Bitch]] and jerk) by the threat of Voldemort killing him and his parents. Also noticeable is that while in the past, Harry and friends hated Draco, they instead see him as pathetic, and keep [[Save the Villain|saving him]] even as he keeps trying to do successful evil against them.

* Some of the more incompetent [[Mooks]] in the ''[[Redwall]]'' series fall into this category.

* [[Butt Monkey|Vaurien Scapegrace]] from ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant]]''. His major goal in life is to be "Killer Supreme". Not only does he ''not'' manage to kill ''any''one until two whole books '''after''' his initial appearance, but he ends up being killed himself and turned into a zombie before even that.

* Chichikov in ''[[Dead Souls]]'' becomes this effectively.

 

* The Stillman Sisters from an episode of ''[[Charmed]]'', entitled "The Power of Three Blondes". They are trying to steal the Halliwell sisters' powers and prove that they're more than just dumb blondes, and they come oh-so-close to succeeding at both.

* Dr. Clayton Forrester of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' springs to mind. As his character brief in the show's official Episode Guide puts it, "His passion for depravity far exceeds his aptitude."

** Spike is a mixture of this and [[Draco in Leather Pants]]. It's why he had a sizable fan following even when he was pathetic and laughably useless.

* Halfway through his [[Villain Decay]] and before his (grudging) [[Heel Face Turn]], Crais of ''[[Farscape]]'' became this, having always been a [[Large Ham|little ridiculous]] and also [[Freudian Excuse|rather sad]]. He remains an egomaniac throughout, though.

** That was Season 1. Then [[Character Development]] kicks in. I'm not going to spoil the details, but by Season 4, he's possibly the single most sympathetic (in the sense that "you actually like him because he's a good guy") character on the show.

** Peter becomes sympathetic when one realizes that he is trapped in the system just as much as the other main characters. His delusions are crushed at the end of season 1 and he realizes that being a jerk will not get him anywhere in the firm. He is much more humble after this and stops being a villain.

*** [[Evil Chef| Mad Mike the Pizza Chef]] from "Trouble By the Slice". Okay, most fans are under a non-verbal agreement ''never'' to speak of this one again, but a brief exception must be made here. [[Mook Maker| Porto]] was “inspired” to create this monster from the mascot of a pizza parlor, but even in a show known for being campy and cheesy, someone who [[Edible Ammunition| used thrown pizzas as weapons]] who tried to bake the heroes into a pizza went a little overboard. Plus his costume was [[Unfortunate Implications| a dumb recreation of the flag of Italy and he spoke with a horrid parody of an Italian accent]]; thankfully he was never seen again.

** Radster from ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]''. In all fairness, this was the first Monster of the Week in Lost Galaxy, making him sort of a [[Warmup Boss]], but he was still sort of lame. He was part scorpion, part lobster, [[Elvis Impersonator| and part Elvis]] (no, [["Not Making This Up" Disclaimer| really]]) and had a bad case of [[Small Name, Big Ego]]. The only reason he gave the Rangers a hard time was because they didn’t have Zords yet, but the Red Galactabeast blew him to fragments with one blast of its fiery breath. Still, Radster may have been a failure as a warrior, but [[Laughably Evil| he sure made the fans laugh]].

** From ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]'' came Donkeyvac. [[Hybrid Monster]]s are common in this franchise, but this one was created by combining the DNA of [[You Fail Biology Forever| a donkey, a pomegranate, and a vacuum cleaner]]. He did have the ability [[Rapid Aging| to steal the youth from victims]], so if he had a design that made logical sense (and didn’t shoot exploding fruit from his nose) he might have been an efficient and memorable threat, but he did not, and was not.

** Stingerella from ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]]''. This scorpion-girl monster came off as terrifying at first from her appearance alone, and to her credit, she appeared in more episodes than most of the monsters listed here (three as the antagonist, plus one cameo). But then she actually launches her assault and shows herself to be a master of… [[Dance Battler|Dance Battle]]. To drive that point home, she trained a battalion of [[Mooks| Rinshi]] in the same “style”. Someone really should have told her that this is something the typical [[Recruit Teenagers with Attitude| Teenagers With Attitude]] can learn like a duck to water. Worse, during the Megazord Battle she breaks out a much more useful power - [[Bee-Bee Gun| a whole swarm of scorpions used as projectiles]], which makes you wonder why she didn’t use that in the first place.

*** Plus there was Game Face from the [[Sequel Series]], ''[[Power Rangers Dino Super Charge]]'', the episode "Freaky Frightday". Give a storyboard designer ten minutes to design a monster with the personality of a tough gym teacher and an [[I Know Madden Kombat]] theme, the result would be… Much better than this one. He looked like someone took all the equipment a high school PhysEd department was going to throw away and glued it all together in a vaguely humanoid monstrosity. He had a large set of [[Combo-Platter Powers]] set due to an arsenal of equipment, but with no synergy whatsoever, and while he did have hilarious dialogue, he was about as much of a threat as the pile of junk he resembled.

 

 

 

* In ''[[Xenogears]]'', Kahran Ramsus appears as a primary villain early on, and, with his prettyboy features, white hair, and usage of a sword as his weapon, seems destined to be the big bad. {{spoiler|By the end of the game, his [[Beware the Nice Ones|wallflower-like personal assistant]] has turned out to be the real [[Big Bad]], he finds out that he's a failed clone designed to mimic the powers of the main character (who he has repeatedly lost to), and is abandoned by his masters for his repeated failures.}}

* ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' had Gilgamesh, the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Large Ham|enthusiastic, melodramatic]], and ultimately [[Affably Evil]] [[The Dragon|sidekick]], who, despite being a reasonably tough boss to fight, really talked himself up to be a lot more than he was...and eventually, after deciding that he liked the heroes a lot more than his boss, he {{spoiler|[[Taking You with Me|blew himself up to take out another boss]] that was attacking them - but not without a cheesy and confusing farewell speech.}}

* ''[[Steambot Chronicles]]'' has Dudley, an obnoxious, tough-talking, muscle-brained trotmobile rider who the player runs into on about 4 occasions (3 during the main story and another in an optional encounter). While not necessarily a villain per se, the oaf constantly boasts about his strength and generally acts like a prick (he picks fights with anyone he can, destroys a farm just because "flowers are stupid", and think that a massive zeppelin is hoarding treasure). In the hero ending of the game, he can even be seen during the credits making what appears to be threatening gestures towards Vanilla (who is leaving on a ship for his homeland).

* ''[[Halo]]'' has the Unggoy/Grunts, the main cannon fodder for the Covenant. Small (by Covenant standards), requiring gas masks to breathe in non-methane atmosphere, mistreated by the other races, they're slaves who come across as cowards. In large part because, fearing an uprising, the Covenant doesn't want to give them any actual combat training. Half the fandom feels sorry for them. The other half [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|loves to slaughter them]]. Averted in ''Halo3'' and ''Halo3: ODST'': there, they take [[Took a Level in Badass|so many levels in badassery]].

** Arvel the Swift, the first bad guy most players come across. The quest involving him requires you to find him and get the Golden Claw he stole. When you find the infamous thief, he’s been caught by a [[Giant Spider]], and you have to rescue him. However, once you cut him down he calls you a fool and makes a run for it; unfortunately for him, he’s actually not very swift, and barring a hideous streak of bad luck, he’s easy to catch. In fact, if you DO have a hideous streak of bad luck, the guy doesn’t realize he’s about to charge into a crypt full of [[Our Zombies Are Different| hungry Draugr]], and even if he gets past them (which he won’t) he’d run into a hallway full of deadly traps and… Long story short, he’s a stupid bandit.

** Ulfr the Blind, the bandit who "watches" the entrance to White River Watch. Already, this is clearly a bunch of [[Stupid Crooks| Stupid Bandits]], putting their hideout so close to Whiterun, but they have a ‘’blind’’ man guarding the entrance. Even worse, it’s pretty easy for you to convince him you’re another bandit, unless you actually attack him, and if you DO that, he suddenly seems perfectly able to see. So either he’s not blind, and is simply lazy, or he’s the skilled at blind-fighting, but a terrible guard.

** The dumbass Bandit by the log bridge south of Hillborne's Tomb. This jerk insults and challenges everyone he comes across, including you and the Ancestor Trolls that are nearby. The bridge isn't exactly the safest place to fight on, and the only threat he poses comes if you act like a bigger jerk and follow him onto it, but otherwise, he won't last long.

** Captain Valmir, {{spoiler|an undercover Thalmor agent disguised as a Stormcloak captain or an Imperial Legion soldier (whichever side ''you'' are on) who tells you to fetch the Dragon Priest Mask from Forelhost. Why? Well, according to his orders (which he carries) he's supposed to get it, but is too lazy and/or cowardly to do it, so he dresses as a member of your faction and tells ''you'' to. If you agree (which is worth it, as the Mask is a pretty decent magic item) you have to fight a bunch of ghosts, cultists, and Rahgot himself (a far more competent villain) and take the Mask, and when you come out, Valamir, who clearly wasn't too convinced of your success, if trying to pull this con on ''another'' adventurer. Which is ''very'' bad for him, because now he's got ''two'' adventurers angry at him. He won't last long after that.}}

* The Panther King from ''[[Conker's Bad Fur Day]]'' is stupid to the point of absurd, not to mention gullible. His sole motivation for opposing Conker stems from his obsession with fixing the table next to his throne and [[The Dragon|Professor von Kripplespac's]] claim that red squirrels make good table legs. Despite this suggestion making no sense whatsoever, he's willing to commit acts like kidnapping and murder to obtain a red squirrel, which Conker actually ''isn't''. {{spoiler|Little wonder that Kripplespac succeeded in [[The Starscream |his plan to assassinate him]].}}

* [[Mega Corp|Majestic]], from ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]''. What does it say in a game with a name like ''that'' when the genocidal alien looks more competent and more ethical than his human foes? Majestic is a large international organization dedicated to defeating the Furons, while secretly plotting their own goals of [[Take Over the World| world domination.]] Thing is, the Furon invasionary force consists of… [[Easy Logistics| one guy, the protagonist, Crypto]]. For all their highly-trained agents and cutting edge technology, Majestic - A [[Non-Indicative Name]] if there ever was one - can’t capture or defeat this one alien. Seriously.

 

** Despite that, Taps Man {{spoiler|managed to kill Burnt Face Man's rival, Slightly Bruised Man, with a spray of scalding water, followed with tepid water with lead piping and a faulty boiler.}}

* [[Homestar Runner|Strong Bad]], most of the time. On the rare occasion the mischief he gets up to is more serious than [[Poke the Poodle|Poodle Poking]], he's likely to fail pretty miserably at it. It's just as well, though, as the local approach to law enforcement is [https://web.archive.org/web/20150316030334/http://www.homestarrunner.com/jailcartoon.html just as pathetic].

* Verosika Mayday, Blitzo's ex-girlfriend and now rival from ''[[Helluva Boss]]''. [[Breakout Character]], maybe, but as a [[Horny Devil]], not very competent. A leader of a group of other succubi and incubi, Verisika figures a group of hormone-crazed college students on spring break are easy prey. She's right, and easily tempts them into an orgy of bestial lust, but makes the mistake of doing it ''on a public beach''. The end of the episode sees Blitzo's crew - who were very careful to leave no witnesses to ''their'' evil deeds - fleeing back to Hell while the police surround Verosika and her group, likely leaving a ''lot'' for her to explain to whatever Overlord she's working for.

 

* About half the [[Card-Carrying Villain|Card Carrying Villains]] in ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'' fit this trope. (The rest, of course, are anywhere on the scale between [[Affably Evil]] and [[Complete Monster]].)

* Waldo and Steve in the [[Web Comic]] ''[[CRFH]]'', though they are [[Gonk|far too ugly]] both physically and socially to ever be truly sympathetic.

* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20110128104159/http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=081023 Minion Master] from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.

** In an alternative universe, [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20090910 he's] [[Not So Harmless]].

** Pretty much, [[Everything Trying to Kill You|everything]] in [[Crapsack World|the universe]] has [[Butt Monkey|two purposes]]: to hurt [[Heroic Sociopath|Black]] [[Complete Monster|Mage]] and humiliate Drizz'l.

* The Flaming Prince from ''[[Van Von Hunter]]''.

** He's mostly out of his depth and as he tries to grasp any straw, "bloody list of things to atone for keeps getting bigger".

 

* Dr. Horrible of ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'', portrayed as a decent fellow with evil ambitions and a crush on a girl from his laundromat, while also being bullied around by [[Jerk Jock]] superhero Captain Hammer.

** He even qualifies as a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]; he thinks [[Utopia Justifies the Means]] and a benevolent dictatorship would do that. Kind of like [[Pinky and The Brain|the Brain]].

* While she worms her way out of trouble much more successfully than the Critic and could dominate the world if she got her mind fixed, [[The Nostalgia Chick]] is still just a shut-in alcoholic who'll never make anything of her life.

* Kami Steele of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' [[Spin-Off]] ''The Program'' seems to fit on and off, depending on the thread. Her first appearance had her pointing a gun [[Gangsta Style]] at a girl with the intent to kill her, but ran away over being ''yelled at'' by said girl, who had started to poke holes in her plans. She has since started a [[Not So Harmless|body count]], but still has her moments of incompetence. One could also make a case for Version 4's Jimmy Brennan, [[Not So Harmless|up until he]] {{spoiler|beat Philip Ward to death with a branch}}. Prior to that, though, he definitely qualified due to his [[Small Name, Big Ego|attitude]].

 

** Except in the episode "Secrets of My Excess", however this time, Spike is transformed into a gargantuan rampaging beast that almost completely demolishes Ponyville. ''Even then'' he may lean into this since it's all for the sake of [[Poke the Poodle|hoarding "gifts"]].

** Most of the [[Rogues Gallery]] for the show act as this or mere petty bullies. The foes used in the two part specials are the only notable exceptions, and even then their [[Smug Snake|detrmimental arrogance]] and the often humiliating manner they are taken out almost makes you pity them.

{{quote|''[[Lex Luthor]]'': [[Trivially Obvious|Scarecrow, you...you're made of STRAW!]]}}

* The Amoeba Boys in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''. While the Powerpuff Girls are out beating up real criminals, the poor Amoeba Boys can't get the girls' attention, despite committing [[Sarcasm Mode|heinous]] acts such as [[Poke the Poodle|littering, jaywalking, and disobeying a "Keep off the grass" sign.]]

** Killface is so sympathetic, especially when compared to [[Jerkass]] [[Designated Hero]] Xander Crews, that it's easy to forget that he brutally killed two people in the pilot and has added to his body count throughout the series. It helps that some of the other members of the cast have committed similar misdeeds and/or are [[Asshole Victim]]s.

* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' qualifies for this trope most of the time; more often than not, his schemes are thwarted by the Ditz portion of his [[Genius Ditz]] personality, rather than by his arch-nemesis or his [[Cloudcuckoolander]] robot. Of particular note is the episode where he survives a [[Training from Hell]] in order to receive some [[Humongous Mecha]]s from his leaders, only to be shot into a sun for his troubles.

* Dr. Drakken from ''[[Kim Possible]]'' never gets the respect he thinks he should have; he always fails his capers, sometimes even without the help of Team Possible. Maybe he had the ''potential'' to be a great villain, but he never acted on it. He often gets mistaken for the more respected Dementor and, at the end of the series, he is outright told how much of a failure of a villain he has been (despite having come closer to [[Take Over the World|taking over the world]] than any of his peers, and ending up with {{spoiler|much of the credit for saving the world from the [[Alien Invasion]])}}. If it wasn't for his [[The Dragon|Dragon]], Shego, he wouldn't be a villain at all.

** Arguably, every villain in ''[[Kim Possible]]'' is like this, aside from Shego, who's the only one with any amount of competence or fighting ability.

** Of course, he was never anything but effective and unsympathetic in the comics, where, among other things, he ''killed his own son''. Oh, and he used to be a ''[[Honest John's Dealership|used car salesman]]'', [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|the]] ''[[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|fiend]]''!

*** He does get the ineffectual part still - sometimes as part of a [[Plan]], sometimes because it's an imposter performing poorly. And sometimes, Destro just plain doesn't like him, and is willing to take the loss just to make him look bad, mostly because of his 'thing' for the Baroness.

* The Box Ghost of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' draws the line between this and [[Harmless Villain]]. He has the potential to be a great baddie (if one episode and his {{spoiler|[[Future Badass|badass future self]]}} is any indications), but he just never makes it. Out of all the ghosts Danny has fought, Box Ghost is strictly in the "Who Cares" category, but he tries, he oh so tries.

** And his love of boxes is reminiscent of [[Kids Prefer Boxes|a small child who prefers the box to the toy that came in it.]]

** Just drive, you moron! Your car is so fast that you can build elaborate booby traps in the time it takes the other racers to catch up! [[Fridge Logic|If you'd just forget about them and keep driving, you'd win every race hands down!]]

*** It wasn't for nothing that he had a whole trope [[Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat|named after him]].

* Tom, from [[Tom and Jerry]], was so ineffectual and sympathetic that, in many cartoons, one failed to see how Jerry was even a victim. Particularly [[Egregious]] examples, in fact, would cite that he wanted nothing more than to leave Jerry in peace, and Jerry could not stop [[Designated Hero|antagonizing him and trying to ruin his life.]] Often, the shows started with Jerry trying to steal Tom's milk, break into a safe/refrigerator/ship that Tom was guarding or just being a [[Jerkass|dick in general]]. Granted, sometimes Tom's methods can get [[Disproportionate Retribution|a bit extreme]], he's just trying to protect his property or [[Punch Clock Villain|doing his job]].

** [[Depending on the Writer|Though there were just as many examples were he was not sympathetic at all]].

** Usual, given that this is the reason why they're so popular, with people playing up the ineffectual sympathetic part, and ignoring the vilain part.

* Zordrak's minions, the Urpneys (and sometimes even his former self) of ''[[The Dreamstone]]'', are a mix of this alongside the [[Minion with an F In Evil]] category. The fact that their overall goal usually amounted to little more than [[Poke the Poodle|giving people scary dreams]] didn't help much. Granted since Rufus and Amberley are often [[The Meddling Kids Are Useless|Ineffectual Sympathetic Heroes]] they do at least briefly get the upper hand every now and then.

* [[Big Bad|General Specific]] from ''[[Sheep in The Big City]]''. To put it bluntly, how hard could it be to catch one sheep in a city where nobody likes sheep? Well, this guy spends the whole series trying and failing to do so.

* Downplayed with Boogey from ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy]]''. He has indeed done quite a few evil things that had long-lasting repercussions for members of the cast, mostly due to his petty grudge against Grim. However, when you take his true goal - wanting to be the scariest of all monsters - into consideration, he’s a failure, because well, he’s just not scary. Grim claims butterflies are scarier than he is, Mandy claims marshmallows are scarier, and even his henchman [[The Dragon|Mr. Creeper]] isn’t afraid to tell him he can't think of a monster that is ''less'' scary than Boogey is. In fact, in the movie (where the [[MacGuffin|Horror’s Hand]] puts the cast through an [[I Know What You Fear]] scenario) it is revealed that Boogey’s greatest fear is realizing he isn’t scary.

 

*** "''Good soldiers, bad officers''" is how Rommel described the Italians, and as for how ineffectual they were, one of his other quotes was "''The German soldier has impressed the world, however the Italian Bersagliere soldier has impressed the German soldier''".

**** Of course, seeing that an army's capacity to organize, plan, and cause its various elements to cooperate efficiently is more important than individual competance, it's still not the makings of a very good military, as Italy's entire post Roman military history shows.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091230053507/http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/hostage-post-office-gunman-was-angry-at-government-146816.html Warren Taylor] seems to have found a way to combine this trope with [[Terrorists Without a Cause]]. He stormed into a small-town post office, placed what appeared to be a bomb on the counter, and took three people hostage. At that point, he didn't seem to know quite what to do. Over the following eight hours, he issued two demands: a pizza to share with his hostages, and a pack of cigarettes for a hostage who smoked. In the end, he made his way outside and surrendered peacefully, eventually apologizing during his arraignment for getting everybody out on Christmas.

* [[wikipedia:Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf|Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf]], better known as Baghdad Bob and Comical Ali (the latter being a reference to "Chemical Ali", the nickname of the much more effectively evil former Iraqi Defence Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid) gained fame and memetic status during the second Iraq War on account of his hilarious [[Blatant Lies]] about American forces, which were generally contradicted by things visible directly behind him.

* Kim Jong Il in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdug6yHJB40 this video].

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj4GSVQBLdk This robber.] Prepare to laugh.