Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"[[Shoulder Sized Dragon|Spike]], I don't know what upsets me more; that you deliberately tried to set up [[The Owl-Knowing One|Owlowiscious]], or that you actually thought this pathetic attempt would work!"|'''[[Unicorn|Twilight Sparkle]]''', from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' [[hottip:*:(Though really, Spike was just ''temporarily'' a villain [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S1 E24 Owls Well That Ends Well|during the episode that originated the quote.)]]}}

* The [[Those Two Bad Guys|South Korean mice]] in the propaganda-tastic North Korean series ''A Squirrel and a Hedgehog.'' The pair, consisting of domineering [[Jerkass]] [[Four Eyes Zero Soul|Mulmangcho]] and his meeker, one-eared companion Yelipalip, migrate from faction to faction amongst the villains, and are consistently mistreated and abused. All of their efforts to prove their worth, do something evil, and make it higher up in the ranks of whichever group they're currently attached to inevitably fail, miserably and pitifully, usually thanks to the heroes. More than once, the two are actually arrested and imprisoned by their own bosses and almost executed because they got the blame for what the [[Dressing As the Enemy|undercover good guys]], Geumsagi and Juldarami, did. So far, they have always managed to somehow get out of such situations alive. Although they ''clearly'' want to be evil and respected (Mulmangcho more so than Yelipalip), they fail so often and so pitifully it's difficult not to feel bad for them.

* 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).

** But contrary to his reputation, the Shocker actually has a fairly high success rate against Spidey. He once proved himself to be [[Not So Harmless]] when he captured Spidey and, in a fit of rage, delivered a [[No Holds Barred Beatdown]] that nearly killed him. Even [[The Hood]] mentioned that he had great respect for the guy.

** Not so ineffectual, actually. Even with horrible help (which he intentionally looks for, too), he still manages to be a somewhat legitimate threat...Or he would, except the [[Villain Ball|Code]] keeps him from being more then a [[Card-Carrying Villain]]. Remember though, like the Barbarian heroes he travels with for much of the story, he's lived to be very, very old in a profession that regularly has him facing some of the most dangerous individuals in the world (I.E. [[Go Karting With Bowser|the heroes he's travelling with]]).

* Winston Payne from the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series, while not a villain, is a prosecutor, and therefore an antagonist. He was once the famous "Rookie Killer" who claims to have never lost a case in his first seven years as a lawyer, but lost one case along [[Hair Today Gone Tomorrow|with his hair]] and, from then on, basically became a joke.

* Snively from ''[[Sonic Sat AM (Animation)|Sonic Sat AM]]''. He is a reedy and sneering little man who is always consumed by his Uncle Robotnik's quite massive shadow. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Also, he's a baldy.]] {{spoiler|However, he turns out to be [[Not So Harmless]] when he manages to slip out before his uncle is killed, and return as a [[The End or Is It]] cliffhanger for a season that we will never receive.}}

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.

[[Category:Trope]]