Invincible Villain: Difference between revisions

However, just because a hero can't win all the time, that doesn't mean [[Failure Hero|they can't win ever]]. And just because villains can win, that doesn't mean a villain can win all the time. Both of these are problems. And they share an extreme. This is the '''Invincible Villain'''. This character is basically a walking personification of [[Victory Is Boring]], for the audience.

 

 

The Boring Invincible Villain is the guy who makes the audience react in one of two ways.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** ''[[Super Robot Wars K]]'' drives the point home by having a scene (Probably the longest in the game) where just about every playable character in Genesis tries to defeat Emperor Gene and gets crushed by their efforts, until [[Kid Hero|Ruuji]] finally does the trick in his ''second'' try. Note the scene plays [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|after you just kicked Gene's ass]].

* Naraku from ''[[Inuyasha]]'' until the last battle. The [[Big Bad]] for a manga series spawning ''558 chapters'', the handful of other villains that appeared were almost universally working for or with him. The very few times he was defeated or killed was part of his plans and he eventually came back, and despite the heroes repeatedly finding new powers and new weapons, every time they fought Naraku he escaped and lived to fight another day. In the end, he ''did'' win, in that he got all the jewel shards and formed the completed Shikon Jewel, and if not for {{spoiler|Inuyasha's [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment with Kagome,}} he would have yet again successfully executed a plan that hinged on him dying or feigning death.

* Yujiro Hanma from ''[[Baki the Grappler]]''. In the one anime fight where someone even lands a worthwhile attack (Doppo counters with several chest crushing punches), Yujiro simply stands up smiling as if he had an itch. To date, nothing has even given him cause to pause. Though several characters have evolved based on his almost unachievable status.

* This trope is [[Kick the Dog|one]] [[The Worf Effect|of]] [[Generic Doomsday Villain|several]] [[Villain Sue|reasons]] [[Smug Snake|why]] the Huckebein of ''[[Lyrical Nanoha|Nanoha Force]]'' are so [[The Scrappy|hated]].

** Look at the description. The only difference between him and the heroes is that the heroes can talk coherently. And the motivation is hilarious.

*** He is popular mainly because, once he's free to do as he pleases, there's nothing but action. On the "lulz" side of [[For the Evulz]]. He's not even a [[Blood Knight]] because he thinks crushing the helpless is just as fun as crushing the strong. Also, he ascends to Super Saiyan to a little tune called "10's", by PANTERA. He runs mainly on awesome and angry. And DBZ is not known for being particularly thought-provoking.

* The Admirals in [[One Piece]] border on this, though they're more antagonists than villains. Luffy, his crew, and pretty much everyone that has ever tried to fight an Admiral other than [[World's Strongest Man|Whitebeard]] has gotten [[Curb Stomp Battle|curbstomped]]. During the [[War Arc]], ''one'' Admiral manages to kill/KO/badly injure Ace, Luffy, Whitebeard, Jinbei, and Ivankov (in a row!!), and then completely ignore attacks from Marco and Vista. Keep in mind that these are some of the strongest pirates ''in the world''. {{spoiler|Even when two Admirals fought each other off-panel (over the [[Time Skip]]), it apparently took 10 days for someone to win.}}

 

* [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[Ghosts of Mars]]'' has this problem. The titular ghosts are just that - intangible ghosts, who [[Demonic Possession|possess humans]] to interact with them. The spirits can't be killed by any known means (they even tried a [[Nuke'Em|nuclear detonation]], which did nothing), which means that if their host is destroyed [[Body Surf|they'll just move on to the next body]]. The movie dances around this issue by setting up the all-out battle to occur after the story's events, but it's impossible to maintain any hope for the surviving characters because victory is ultimately impossible.<ref>If the ghosts are also capable of independent interplanetary travel then not just the Mars colony, but ''all of humanity'' is completely screwed.</ref>

* The ''[[Final Destination]]'' movies teeter back and forth as to whether the heroes can actually win, but this theme consistently shows up in every entry. They're explicitly [[The Problem with Fighting Death|fighting Death]], a presumably eternal force of nature. The fourth movie even indicates that Death gave them the visions in the first place, which means that every death happened according to his design, including the fates of the survivors - it just wasn't their time yet.

 

 

== Videogames ==

* Caius Ballad from ''[[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]'' possesses the Heart of Chaos, which makes him immortal and also connects him to the goddess Etro. {{spoiler|If he dies, so does she. This [[Downer Ending|actually happens at the end of the game. But, of course, Caius is revived]].}} Due to him being the overseer of the world's timeline, he has gained vast knowledge of every possible scenario and uses it to his advantage.

** To make it even worse, in the Arcade version of Extend, when fellow [[Big Bad]] Relius Clover ''beat him'', Hazama looked all happy and embraced death with laugh, as if he predicted that and was very sure of eventual return.

** Because losing to Relius was the entire point. Terumi needed to ''die'' in order to {{spoiler|eliminate Takamagahara as a spirit}}.