Not-So-Harmless Villain: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''Buffy:''' Harmony has minions?!
'''Xander:''' And Ruffles have ridges. Buffy, there's actually a more serious side to this.
'''Buffy:''' God, I hope so.
|''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''}}
Okay, so you have a villain, and, for whatever reason, you [[Harmless Villain|do]] [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|not]] take them seriously. You might [[Unknown Rival|not even think about them]] at all. They might have a lame gimmick, or a weird name, or maybe they just do not stand out among the [[Mooks]]. They are not exactly on your radar. Even if you do remember them, you think they are either a nobody or a total joke.
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{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]: Best Wishes'':
** Remember Team Rocket? The bumbling buffoons who stalked a ten-year-old for 13 years? They are [[Took a Level in Badass|taking about a thousand levels in badass]]. This is most noticeable by the fact that they now started to follow orders from [[Big Bad|Giovanni]], they now try not to go after random Pokémon, and especially they now don't even blast off anymore (they instead escape using jetpacks).
** Even prior to this, Team Rocket would balance their bumbling roles with an occasional genuinely competant plan that is foiled only due to [[Determinator|Ash's sheer determination]]. Not to mention they are [[Redemption Promotion|extremely competent as good guys]].
* ''[[Wolfen Crest]]'': High school gonks [https://web.archive.org/web/20090830071643/http://www.onemanga.com/Wolf_Guy_-_Wolfen_Crest/4/05/ Kurota] and his [https://web.archive.org/web/20090830001507/http://www.onemanga.com/Wolf_Guy_-_Wolfen_Crest/9/07/ twin brother] are chronic bedwetters who happen to look like if John Lennon in his younger years made sweet love to a buck-toothed weasel. They are also members of one of the most powerful and brutal gangs in the city, and they didn't earn it through any connections. Both brothers were born without pubic hair and an inability to masturbate due to phimosis, making them possible targets of ridicule and teasing among the school once their secrets were exposed. However, they confronted the bullying as soon as it started by targeting the boy who acted like the boss of the class and the girl who jeered them most by severing their genitals and slicing off their noses. Since then no one dared speak or make fun of the brothers' condition ever again.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'':
** Prince Schneizel. There's hints to him being like this early on.
** Nina Einstein has this trope covered pretty well in her own right. Who would've thought that {{spoiler|her handiwork killed more people in about ten seconds than ''any'' of the other characters killed? All series? Put together? Times a hundred? ''At least''?}} Way to earn [[Meaningful Name|that last name.]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110907011617/http://insovietbritannia.comoj.com/codegeass/oops.html "Oops"] doesn't even begin to cover it.
* Gouyaan in ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star]]'' is clearly Kefka's star pupil. He's a fat guy with a pinecone on his head whose main purpose is to be annoyed by the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] in front of the [[Big Bad]]. Then he destroys the world.
* Ogura Bunta of ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'', who played the lackey to [[Harmless Villain]] and [[Dirty Coward]] Nagamitsu to facilitate his search for vengeance against Jin.
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** Starrk, who despite seeming very lazy, {{spoiler|is the most powerful of the Espada.}}. This also applies to his fraccion, Lilynette.
** Yammy, rampaging idiot and 10th Espada Zig Zags like all hell with this trope. At first it seems he's incredibly weak, then {{spoiler|he reveals that he's actually the 0th Espada and technically above ''Starrk''. And he still gets his ass kicked. Then he reveals that he's just not at full power and goes to full power mode. And he still gets his ass kicked. Just to drive the fact of Yammy's weakness home, [[Blood Knight|Kenpachi]] called their fight "boring", a criterion he applies to any fight where his life isn't in danger at any point.}}
** Hey everybody, look, it's Wonderweiss! Aw, look how cute he is, getting distracted by a dragonfly in the middle of a battle! Sure, he apparently has spiritual power on par with the Espadas, but he's so childish and cute that I bet he's totally harm-- [https://web.archive.org/web/20121120001432/http://manga.animea.net/bleach-chapter-364-page-5.html HOLY CRAP!].
** Dordonii is initially shown as a somewhat eccentric and comedic villain until he reveals to Ichigo that he used to be an Espada and proceeds to beat the shit out of him.
** More recently, we've been introduced to Shishigawara, Tsukishima's hopelessly naive, blundering, and hot-blooded minion. His Fullbring also lets him manipulate probability into devastating results. ...Yeah, this generally makes the [[Big Bad]] a tad nervous and [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|wants him dead for it.]]
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** Zig-zagged with Onji in the Dark Tournament. He sports some moves in Team Uratogi's quarterfinal match, but next to his teammates, he looks like a normal, friendly old man. Then he effortlessly beats Kuwabara (though to be fair, the latter's own stupidity plays a part in it), and reveals himself to be the one who gave his members their powerful Items of Darkness. {{spoiler|Then he reveals himself as [[Villainous Harlequin|"The Beautiful Demon Fighter Suzuki"]]...and [[Curb Stomp Battle|gets thrashed by Genkai.]]}}
* ''[[Death Note]]'':
** Although he's frightening to look at, it is easy to underestimate Ryuk. [[Villain Protagonist]] Light seems a lot worse, and with his addiction to apples and other humorous qualities, Ryuk tends to come across as [[Plucky Comic Relief]] and Light's [[
** Not to mention part of the [[Fridge Horror]] left in the ending is that Ryuk is the ultimate [[Karma Houdini]]; there's nothing stopping him from dropping a Death Note into the human world again if he ever gets bored.
* Toshiya from ''[[The World Is Mine]]'' starts out as [[Chaotic Evil|Mon's]] weak-willed bitch, even wearing a [[Villainous Crossdresser|female disguise]] and pretending to be Mon's girlfriend in public. Things begin to change after they're {{spoiler|killed by "Hakumadon"}} and Mon can't stand to kill. In addition to becoming the primary murderer of the two, he's also considerably more tech- and social-savvy than [[Wild Child]] Mon and he becomes increasingly vicious and [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative]] as the story goes on.
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==
* Jigsaw in ''[[The Punisher]]'' comics, though it took him several tries to actually reach serious villain status—indeed, what finally pushed him over the top was the ability to survive meeting the Punisher that many times. It's been explained that Frank considers Jigsaw a bane on the Underworld more than innocents. He gets to kill people by proxy letting the lunatic go.
* ''[[The Flash]]'':
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* Black Hand was once a pathetic joke with a weapon that was dependent on stealing energy from [[Green Lantern]]'s ring and a gimmick of committing crimes based on famous folk sayings. Then he found out he's destined to be the [[The Antichrist|Antichrist]] leader of an [[Zombie Apocalypse|army of zombie supervillains]].
* Though he wasn't completely harmless before, Doctor Destiny was always a traditional silver age villain, using dream powers to mess with gravity and create chaos while not really killing anyone. Cut to The 24 Hours story in ''[[The Sandman]]'' #6.
* ''[[Batman]]''
** His archenemy [[The Joker]] has gone through this quite a bit:
*** He first went from lame to dangerous in issue #251: After twenty years of campy, oversized set pieces and pies in the face and bloodless bank robberies,
*** This scene was echoed exactly two hundred issues later, in ''Batman'' #451. Here, Joker (whose reputation has been soundly bolstered by the likes of ''[[The Killing Joke]]'' and ''A Death in the Family'') goes hunting for the henchmen of a copycat Joker that has been terrorizing Gotham in his absence. He interrogates a small-time hood about the henchmen, and awards the guy with a cigar when he receives useful information. While the hood practically shits himself, thinking he's about to be blown to bits, Joker calmly walks away, musing to himself that it had been a perfectly ordinary cigar. "[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Never give 'em what they expect.]]"
*** This change in personality is usually explained by saying that Joker has Multiple Personality Disorder (maybe) and that every few years he can go from harmless to mildly evil to [[Complete Monster]] on a whim (though the real reason is because The Comic Code was imposed on The Joker for twenty years).
*** The de-fanging of Batman's villains began some years before, mostly due to a general shift in tone brought on by Dick Sprang's cartoonier style and the typically crazy plot twists of the late Golden Age. As Mark Waid notes in the afterward to ''The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told'', by the mid-40s the Joker was far less likely to kill. As a trade-off, the stories tended to be much more clever and colorful.
** The ''Joker's Asylum II: Harley Quinn'' oneshot. Rival mobsters, cops and so on know that Harley is a fairly harmless character, whose [[Weapon of Choice]] is a big comedy mallet. But they're standing between her and Mr J on ''Valentine's Day'', which means she's not kidding around anymore.
** In the comics, Scarecrow gets his Not So Harmless upgrade in the "Absolute Terror" arc, where he terrorizes the whole of Gotham to the point it almost destroys itself in fear ''without using any fear gas''. He simply uses psychology, and a few well-placed murders, to show the city that, if he wanted to, he could ''kill any one of them, no matter where they are''.
*** Scarecrow's image problem was remedied in ''The New Batman Adventures'', apparently as a cross between Herbert West, [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?|Judge Doom]], and a corpse cut down from the gallows. Yeesh. He ended up literally making Batgirl live her worst nightmare after that, though at that point he'd been recognized as a pretty significant threat.
** The Penguin, as well. In his first venture as the Penguin, he attempts to muscle his way into a mobster's inner circle. When the boss starts laughing at him (because, seriously, he's a goofy looking guy and goes by "the Penguin") the Penguin kills him in cold blood and takes control of the group.
* ''[[Invincible]]'' villains have a tendency to do this, most notably Doc Seismic and the Lizard League.
* ''[[Spawn]]'':
** The Violator looks like a harmless, morbidly obese, clown with hygiene problems, but he is super strong and capable of ripping a man in half with his bare hands. His true form is absolutely frightening.
** This especially comes up in the [[Animated Adaptation]], when Spawn dismisses and threatens the seemingly harmless Clown one time too many. Clown smirks and says "you don't know who you're dealing with... but it's time you found out," and proceeds to change into his true, [[One-Winged Angel]] form to give Spawn the [[Curb Stomp Battle]] of his life, all while lecturing him on his role in the coming apocalypse.
* Some of the Hulk's foes qualify:
* The Intelligencia from ''[[Fall of the Hulks]]''. The team is made of [[MODOK]], Leader, Wizard, Red Ghost, and Mad Thinker. Together they have become a pretty deadly force. How deadly, you ask? They managed to [[Out-Gambitted|out gambit]] ''Doctor freakin' Doom''.▼
** The Abomination has often been regarded as an evil knockoff of the Hulk and little more, a [[Dumb Muscle]] bad guy who's not dumb ''enough'' to be as entertaining as his heroic foe. Still, this guy's "crowning moment of evil" was poisoning Betty Ross with his own radioactive blood; at first, everyone thought it killed her, but she should be so lucky, it turned her into Red She-Hulk. Seriously, think about it, [[Norman Osborn]] may be a monster, but has he ''ever'' even ''considered'' force-feeding Mary Jane the Goblin Formula? What Abomination did is pretty evil when one considers the implications.
▲** The Intelligencia from ''[[Fall of the Hulks]]''. The team is made of [[MODOK]], Leader, Wizard, Red Ghost, and Mad Thinker. Together they have become a pretty deadly force. How deadly, you ask? They managed to [[Out-Gambitted|out gambit]] ''Doctor freakin' Doom''.
* One of the upsides of the ''[[Brand New Day]]'' era of ''[[Spider-Man]]'', to many fans, has been the recasting of C- and D-list loser villains into competent and credible threats. The Spot comes back as a vengeful psychopath who slowly drives his prey insane by stalking him, while the White Rabbit is an [[Ax Crazy]] drug dealer who's willing to commit mass murder to collect the money she's owed. This also applies to classic Lee-Ditko-Romita villains like Electro, the Shocker, and the Rhino, who have all been rehabilitated from the [[Villain Decay]] they've suffered over the last several years.
* One example of a villain becoming not-so-harmless against his will involved another Spider-Man villain, the Spot. While the ability to create portals might be a useful power to someone with creativity, Spot did not have any, and his dumb-looking costume made him something of a joke. But in one [[Daredevil]] story, he was captured by a group of human traffickers who ''did'' have creativity. They hooked him up to a device that looked like something out of ''[[Saw]]'' so they could not only use, but enhance his powers, then used it for their trafficking operations. They also used it to smuggle money and drugs ''inside the wombs of pregnant women''. Naturally, the Spot wanted no part of such ghoulish activities, but [[From Bad to Worse|then it got worse.]] When he was finally freed of the device, his powers started to malfunction and he somehow started to [[Recursive Reality|teleport himself inside himself]] several times, ending up as a hideous monstrosity that looked like something out of ''[[Silent Hill]]''. Poor guy.
* There once was a low-level biomage named Fleshmaster in ''[[Empowered]]''. After being humiliated by his peers, he finally dared to use his powers on himself, and returned as {{spoiler|the new superhero dWARf!. But since he was still being pissed off, he cooked up a really [[Big Bad]]-worthy scheme. Which was about killing all his peers at the same place where they once had humiliated them, the Capeys Awards.}}
* Catman has received this treatment in spades, courtesy of [[Gail Simone]] in ''[[Secret Six]]''. Essentially, he went from a fat slob with a cat gimmick to a sociopathic, lion-pride-leading, muscly badass somewhere in the Sahara with his insignia carved into his chest (by his own hand!) and a pair of razor claws.
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* Baby Face Finlayson from ''[[The Beano]]'' was a harmless villain in his early appearances in the 70s and 80s but he became not so harmless in Kev F Sutherland's strips in the 2000s where the character reached almost [[Big Bad]] status.
* In ''JLA: New World Order'', the White Martians invade and incapacitate all the superpowered heroes, but ignore [[Batman]] because he has no powers and they believe he can do nothing to stop them (to be fair they did think he was dead, but they were not worried by the possibility that he survived). Protex, launches into a rant about how Batman can do nothing against them, as he's [[Just One Man]] and a normal one to boot, which causes [[Superman]] to retort that Batman is "the most dangerous man on Earth". [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Batman proceeds to prove him right as he single-handedly turns the tide and turns the White Martians into terrified and paranoid wrecks.]]
== Films -- Animation ==
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* {{spoiler|Lotso}} from [[Toy Story (franchise)||''Toy Story 3'']]. He is introduced as the friendly leader of the daycare center toys, but then we find out that he welcomes new toys to his daycare center only to send them all to the dreaded Caterpillar Room, where they are all either pulled apart or smashed to pieces by the students there. {{spoiler|At the end of the film, he even almost had the heroes burned alive in a garbage fire!}}
* [[Karma Houdini|The Coachman]] from ''[[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]]''. You can tell this by his [[Nightmare Face]] in his introductory scene.
* As terrifying as Ms. Tweedy was in the original ''[[Chicken Run]]'', she was [[Obliviously Evil]] at most. A mean woman, yes, with [[A Nazi By Any Other Name| quite a few dark parallels]], but in the end, she was just a farmer trying to make money. Whether she would have continued had she known the chickens were sapient creatures was debatable. However, the sequel - ''[[Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget]]'' - answers that question with a ''definite'' '''yes.''' Tweedy is still in the poultry business, but on a larger, corporate scale, having married the wealthy owner of such a company in order to control it (meaning [[Gold Digger]] can be added to her rap sheet of villainous Tropes), and now runs it like a James Bond villain would. Her stated goal is to eradicate every chicken in the world out of revenge for being humiliated. Petty, vengeful, greedy, with those same dark parallels even more obvious now, Tweedy is ''very'' evil and ''very'' deadly.
== Films -- Live Action ==
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* The Beast in ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]''. Bald, overweight, and at first dressed in a less than intimidating manner, even [[The Syndicate]] that freed him didn't believe he was really the Beast until he held a gun six inches away from his head, pulled the trigger, and [[Bullet Catch|caught the bullet]]. With [[Establishing Character Moment|two fingers.]] He [[You Kill It, You Bought It|quickly ascended]] to being the [[Big Bad]].
* ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'':
** The Scarecrow gets this treatment. Prior to this movie, he was best known as the go-to incompetent villain on ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]''. In the movie, he's introduced as a skinny and unintimidating psychologist with big pretty eyes. And then he sets Batman on fire.''[[
** In ''The Dark Knight'', both Batman and the mob are shown dismissing [[The Joker]] out of hand. The mob considers Batman their more pressing problem, while Batman (somewhat hypocritically) rationalizes that he's just one man, and so can't possibly be more dangerous than the mob. He ends up destroying quite a bit of the city, driving the last nail into the mob's coffin, [[Eucatastrophe|and almost doing the same for Batman]] and [[The Corrupter|drives Harvey Dent to madness.]]
* The [[Killer Rabbit]] from ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]''.
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* Similarly, the infamous "You will not look past me" rant from [[Chris Jericho]] to [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] in the buildup to ''Royal Rumble 2002''. Everyone assumed Rock would beat Jericho for the belt and go on to the [[Wrestlemania]] main event. Nope. Nor did [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] the following month.
* A good chunk of [[The Nexus]] became a lot more dangerous after they formed their group. Justin Gabriel began wearing black trunks and delivering stares of death before a 450 splash, Skip Sheffield became a lot more vicious in the ring. And Michael Tarver...well, actually became awesome, especially after the booking on NXT Season 1 did everything to make you think he wasn't.
* The Spirit Squad. It's very easy to mock five goofy male cheerleaders... until you remember that there are ''five'' of them... they've got you surrounded... prepare for the [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]. They captured the Tag Team Titles from ''[[
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** In the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'', Cyric, while undeniably an evil [[Complete Monster]], was always considered a minor threat at best due to the fact that he's so freaking [[Axe Crazy|insane]] that most of his plans fall through. Then, in 4th edition, he orchestrates the death of Helm, ''personally'' murders Mystra (possibly for [[Killed Off for Real|good]] this time), ''and'' unleashes the devastating Spell Plague, all without breaking a sweat. ''Wow''.
** In the first ''[[Pathfinder]]'' adventure, ''Burnt Offerings'', the players fend off an attack from goblins that act like pyromaniac 5th-graders who injure themselves as often as their opponents. But weeks after the raid, they discover a goblin who ran and hid under a house, where he slowly went mad from hunger and isolation and ''killed and ate a child''. A definite case of [[Mood Whiplash]].
** "The Bandits of Bunglewood" from ''[[Dungeon (magazine)| Dungeon Adventures #51]]'' seems to be inspired by Tucker's Kobolds. The eponymous Bandits are kobolds who have gotten more training than the typical ones, and investigating their misdeeds is difficult because nobody is willing to admit they were beaten up and robbed by mere kobolds. As a result, their actions around the town the module takes place are clouded by stories of orcs, lycanthropes, trolls, and other "respectable" monsters.
* ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' games:
** In general: Humans are slow, feeble, ignorant, nearly powerless, and only an actual danger to supernaturals in significant numbers. Until the supernaturals find themselves facing [[Hunter: The Vigil|the exceptions]], who are ''very'' capable of fighting the supernaturals on their own turf and winning, by means as diverse as Task Force: VALKYRIE's plasma cannons and bullets that phase into the spirit realm and harm incorporeal entities, to the Malleus Maleficarum's habit of calling down the literal wrath of God, to an insanely brave and fiendishly clever group of everyday men and women who have gotten fed up with the things that go bump in the night and broken out whatever weapons or tools that are handy.
** ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]'' also has an example within its own bounds. The Keepers of the Source are a group of feel-good [[New Age Retro Hippy|New Ager neo-hippie]] types based out of San Francisco. They also believe that mages and other practitioners draw upon the life energy of Gaia in order to power their magic, and really, ''really'', '''''really''''' aren't happy with this arrangement.
* In [[Warhammer 40,000]] the Imperial guard are generally portrayed as the Imperium's trillions strong [[Redshirt Army]]. A popular joke in the fandom goes "what do you call a lasgun (the Imperial guard's main weapon) with a laser sight? Double-barreled." Then again, it is possible to have so many in even small games - the saying goes: "One lasgun is a joke. 150 lasguns is not."
== Theater ==
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** Don't forget Bowser in ''Paper Mario''. Although he's extremely dumb (he'll believe Peach if she tells him Mario hates healing items), he possesses the Star Rod which basically makes him a god, and he actually manages to defeat Mario at the start of the game.
* Dimentio in ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' seems to be at first a jester-like character, light-hearted and playful. Later, as his [[The Chessmaster|true]] [[Take Over the World|intentions unfold]], his true menace becomes apparent.
* Gruntilda from ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' and its sequels tends to come across as [[Harmless Villain|rather goofy with her constant rhyming and her funny lines.]] Even when battling her, she still makes weird, rhyming comments. She also reveals some mean magic skills and a surprisingly good aim. Every battle with Gruntilda is a multi-phase marathon where she will pull out all the stops to defeat you. And, just in case you had any doubts, she kicks off her return in ''Banjo-Tooie'' by destroying the grey Jinjos' house, zombifying the king of the Jinjos, destroying ''Banjo's'' house, and ''killing Bottles''. And she plans to zombify the entire Isle of Hags.
* Porky from ''[[EarthBound]].'' He starts out as Ness's friend, and even after he [[Face Heel Turn|turns]], he's still just a harmless nuisance. By the end of the game, though, he's [[Big Bad]] Giygas's right hand-man. There's a reason his theme song for your final battle against him is called "Porky Means Business!" (although the name is unofficial, the Japanese track is cease to exist, referring to what Porky wants Ness and his friends to do.)And if you believe in alternate character interptation he is the true big bad of the game with giygas as his dragon. {{spoiler|In ''[[Mother 3]]'', he's a full-on [[Big Bad]] himself. Who manages to take over the world.}}
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'':
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* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', Deathwing's attack on Stormwind was probably ''intended'' to be this -A way to showcase him as a major threat who could do serious damage to the Alliance and the Horde after the previous expansion's antagonist, the Lich King, was called a Saturday morning cartoon villain by the fanbase one to many times. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on how well it actually worked, though, since the attack happens almost entirely offscreen, is barely mentioned after the fact, didn't kill anyone important, and has never been given any (canon) reasoning as to why he chose Stormwind and only took out the park when he apparently could have leveled the entire city.
* ''[[Suikoden V]]'''s Lord Barrows is an over the top [[Smug Snake]] and [[Fat Idiot]]. Initially, the only threat he seems to pose is that allying with him makes other potential allies reluctant to join you. It later turns out that he's far more devious than he lets on. {{spoiler|He masterminded the uprising at Lordlake as part of a power grab, which means that a large part of the game's conflict is his fault. Finally, he comes close to forcing the Prince to ally with a foreign army as part of a plan to betray Falena to that army's country.}}
* ''[[Spyro: Year of the Dragon]]'' has Bianca. While at first she's not exactly a threat to Spyro, she does eventually succeed in creating a monster by the name of Buzz to fight Spyro, whose dangerous enough to be the first boss of the game. Though having said that, she's not nearly as big of a threat as the Sorceress is.
== Web Comics ==
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** Oh, it gets better. While Eridan had his issues, no one ever suspected that {{spoiler|Gamzee, upon becoming sober from his sopor slime, would attempt to kill everyone on the station as a show of his inherent superiority.}} Boy were we wrong.
** Courtyard Droll would like to remind you that he's Clubs Deuce's alternate by {{spoiler|blowing up Jade to death}}. His post-scratch self does the same by {{spoiler|murdering Jake's dreamself in his sleep}}, although he does feel a little bad about it.
== Web Original ==
* Act III of ''[[
* ''[[Whateley Universe]]'':
** Jade could also qualify, as her only power is rather weak on its own, being "[[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|What a lame power is heart]]". She's also gained regeneration, but that's not direct damage... except she's got a [[Mad Scientist]] on call to make her [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?|wonderful toys]], and she is VERY clever with using her powers. Amongst other things, she shot someone in the face (Stun), has no qualms about killing enemy mooks if necessary, is known to be a [[Mama Bear]], is working directly for a [[Cosmic Horror]] that exists solely to EAT COSMIC HORRORS! Oh, and she once trapped a demon in the body of an infant... Twice. (Forced it to reform itself in an infant body by threatening it... Then trapped it in that body by breast-feeding it... Regenerator milk has very strange properties.)
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* The [[Big Bad]] mastermind of ''[[Gaia Online]]''s deicide storyline? {{spoiler|Don Kuro, the [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|perpetually]] [[Cute Shotaro Boy|five-years-old]] dark elf mob boss, about whom all we'd known previously was that he [[One of Us|likes going to anime conventions]] ([[No Fourth Wall|Gaia conventions, even]]), has an [[Cool Big Sis|awesome big sister]], is a huge [[Momma's Boy]], and owes Devin favors ([[Ship Sinking|not that kind]]).}}
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] is a pathetic, miserable, useless waste of space... but he rigged ''[[Kickassia]]'' with dynamite just in case anyone wanted to take his finally-gained power away.
== Western Animation ==
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** When the first cross-overs between the animated series started, Batman fought Lex and won quite effortlessly when Superman thought he couldn't handle him. And then Superman, who had absolutely dismissed The Joker as goofy-looking nobody, is then nearly defeated by the psycho (not to mention he nearly kills [[Lois Lane]] and a few hundred other people while pinning Super down).
** From an evil point of view, Lex has dismissed Joker himself because he can't handle his 'mere mortal' in Gotham. [[Eviler Than Thou|By the end the Joker completely outdoes him, nearly destroying everything he loves and nearly killing him.]]
** As shown above, Lex also felt that Batman was nothing to worry about and saw him as nothing more than a nuisance, that is until Batman breaks into his penthouse and does something that even Superman had failed to do before: scaring the crap out of Lex Luthor.
* Tim The Witch Smeller from ''[[Sabrina the Animated Series]]'' and his pet aardvark look like a joke but are some of the most dangerous villains in the cartoon.
* ''[[Metalocalypse]]'':
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** The Forever Knight, while creepy and threatening in the original series, were gradually turned into a joke over the course of Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, to the point in one episode, Gwen (who is usually the [[Only Sane Man|Only Sane Woman]] of the group) considered Ben supporting his girlfriend in a tennis match was a priority over preventing them to take over the world. Comes season 2 of Ultimate Alien, their original leader is back and turned them into a much more competent group with hight-tech weapons and who actually succeed in killing a recurring character.
** Vilgax's sidekick Psyphon was passive for most of his screen time, usually contempting himself with being a messenger, advisor, scientist and lackey. After Vilgax is apparently killed in the finale of Alien Force, he goes on a [[Avenging the Villain]] moment against Ben. Turns out he is skilled enough to handle ''Ultimate Spider-Monkey'' in a hand-to-hand fight.
* When the Pakleds appeared in ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', they were [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|joke villains]] intentionally portrayed as incompetent and dimwitted, the reason the crew mistook them for harmless. In ''[[Star Trek: Lower Decks]]'', while still incompetent and dimwitted, they manage to be a legitimate threat, mostly because Starfleet never considered them to be such and ignored them. Indeed, the episode "No Small Parts" could be seen as a precautionary tale to any who dismiss a potential threat as unimportant.
== Real Life ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Corruption Tropes]]▼
[[Category:Hidden Badass]]
[[Category:More Than Meets the Eye]]
[[Category:Villains]]
▲[[Category:Corruption Tropes]]
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