Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Difference between revisions

** Hody Jones, the [[Big Bad]] (again, the term should be used loosely) from the Fishman Island saga. He looked kinda threatening, being a huge, bulky shark-man, but that was it, he was [[Curb Stomp]]ed twice, the first time by Zoro, the second time by Luffy. The only thing truly interesting about him was his motivation (blatant racism against humans) but any chance for a plot with serious social commentary was ruined because it degenerated quickly into blind hatred. Worst thing is, even if his scheme had succeeded, he and his crew would have been done in by the steroidal drugs they were using, making his victory pitifully short.

** 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.

** 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.

* 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.