Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Difference between revisions

** 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.

** Another [[Laughably Evil]] villain was Wapol, the [[Big Bad]] (the term should be applied loosely) from the Drum Island Arc. While this guy had a cool Devil Fruit power with the potential to make him a threat, he was ''never'' even a small threat to the heroes, he was just... ''there'', and the arc would have gone smoother had he ''not'' been there. His one redeeming trait is that he is ''very'' funny, and became a rather complex and interesting recurring character after [[Redemption Promotion| he ''quit'' being a villain and went into toymaking.]]

** 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.