Not-So-Harmless Villain: Difference between revisions

** 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.

* 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.

* There once was a low-level biomage named Fleshmaster in ''[[Empowered (Comic Book)|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.}}

** Also worth noting: "I feel like I'm gonna break this thing." Well, Jay, in Soviet Russia...

* Yuen Wah's character in ''Eastern Condors'' at first seemed like a comic relief villain (mostly due to his weird laugh), but turned out to be an incredibly intense martial artist at the end of the movie.

* ''[[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 (Animation)|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.''[[This Is Sparta|He. Set.]] [[The Batman (Animation)|BATMAN.]] [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|ON. FIRE.]]'' And still gets defeated pretty much instantly.

* In ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', in "Changing Face of Evil", the Dominion allies with the Breens, a race that can only live in the cold, and was previously known only as pirates and slavers, so the first reaction was "WTF? Next time Dominion makes alliance with cavem...". Then the Breen {{spoiler|attack Earth}} and ''then'' they {{spoiler|whip out the energy draining gun, pwning 300 ships at once and endangering all others}}.

* Trakeena of ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]''. Becoming Not So Harmless was what her whole character is about. At first, she's Big Bad Scorpius' spoiled daughter, and spends most of the time whining or backstabbing the villains who do know what they're doing in order to rise in the ranks. Eventually, she leaves, eventually meets up with an old ally of her dad's, and gets some combat training. The real fun begins when [[The Starscream]], Deviot, arranges Scorpius' death (oh, a lot of backstabbing going on in ''Lost Galaxy'') and succeeds. Trakeena returns to take his place... and the new, badder Trakeena is worse than her dad ever was. She starts out as a competent and more proactive Big Bad, and gets more and more driven (and insane) until finally reaching unimaginable heights of evil. The final arc is something that wouldn't fly in a kids show (or any show short of ''[[Twenty Four]]'', for that matter) this side of 9/11.

** The Daleks are a meta-example. While the characters rarely reacted with anything but terror, their numerous appearances over the original series' [[Long Runner|twenty-six year run]] heavily diluted any fear to be had from the motorised pepper pots. Thus the new series episode "Dalek" was written with the sole intention of showing a new generation that the Daleks were Not So Harmless, with a single imprisoned, crippled, powerless Dalek killing hundreds of people effortlessly.

{{quote| '''The Doctor:''' What's the nearest town?<br />

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'''s Lucian Alliance gained a reputation as being a bumbling band of smugglers whose M.O. roughly came down to spreading evil space corn throughout the galaxy. When they make their reappearance in ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]'', they do so replacing the goofball routine with a new "ruthless band of badasses" one.

** In the ''Universe'' pilot, they actually have several Ha'taks give trouble to the ''General Hammond'', a ''Daedalus''-class battlecruiser upgraded with Asgard technology (including those plasma beams that can slice through Ori shields). The Ha'taks themselves were for a number of seasons considered nothing more than a joke. And why not? The Lucian Alliance are not the Goa'uld, they're human (most of them) and have as much ingenuity as Earth-bound humans.

* [[Smug Snake|Vern]], [[Psycho Loner]] and [[Big Bad Wannabe]] of ''[[Dark Oracle]]'' spent a season-and-a-half being treated as a joke by the main characters, who had far bigger problems to deal with in the form of their [[Evil Twin|Evil Twins]] Blaze and Violet. Then in rapid succession Vern, finds and reads the comic book that shows Blaze and Violet's world, steals an amulet from [[The Mentor|Doyle]] and attempts to kill Doyle, Lance and Cally with it, absorbs some of the amulet's magic so that even after losing it he remains a threat, and frees previous [[Big Bad]] [[Evil Sorcerer|Omen]] from the comic, eventually helping him trap Lance in the comic, and loosing [[The Dragon|Blaze]] in the process. Unfortunately for him, Blaze being on the loose means that Vern is again overshadowed, and ultimately {{spoiler|has to pull a [[Heel Face Turn]] when he realises Blaze is going to turn on him}}.

* Dr. Maki from ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'' started out as a creepy [[Mad Scientist]] that was actually rather evil (though he was ''working'' for a good guy). And, while he did make a [[Deal With the Devil]] with the [[Big Bad]] Kazari, he gradually turned into a joke...until {{spoiler|he remembered ''he'' killed his sister and decides it was the right thing to do.}} Not only does he regain all his previous level of evil, ''[[It Got Worse|he]] [[Moral Event Horizon|gets]] [[Complete Monster|worse]]!'' He {{spoiler|goes [[One-Winged Angel]] and becomes the Dinosaur Greeed, unites the Greeed, and tells Kazari [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]], [[Eviler Than Thou|killing him by ripping out his intact Core Medals]], leaving him to die a slow and painful death (though he had it coming...). He goes from an absolute joke to the ''[[Big Bad]]!''}}

* Loki of [[Norse Mythology]]. Most of the tales starring Loki cast him as a harmless trickster. He gets into amusing antics with Thor, cheats Dwarves with a [[Pound of Flesh Twist]], helps the Norse gods swindle a giant by seducing his horse (giving birth to Sleipnir in the process), and cuts off Sif's (Thor's wife) hair as a prank. Oh, and he also fathers three of the most dangerous beings in the mythos; one becomes the ruler of (and namesake) of the underworld, one becomes a sea serpent big enough to encircle the world, and the third becomes the [[Big Badass Wolf|Biggest Badass Wolf]] ever. But Loki only ''really'' gets nasty when he finds out that he's destined to suffer a horrific fate at the hands of the other gods, and decides that he might as well ''earn'' it. He does so by killing Baldur and ensuring that he ''stayed'' dead. Then when Ragnarok arrives, he breaks free of his imprisonment, leads an army of the damned, and kills the bridge guardian of the gods Heimdall (though he dies as well), doing his part to seal the Norse gods' defeat.

* Loki's description could actually describe all trickster gods in mythology. Most of the time they just perform harmless and amusing pranks. Then they commit deeds of mayhem and murder that only they find funny. The worst of them are essentially [[The Joker]] armed with divine powers.

 

 

* 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.

 

 

** It gives this treatment to ''The Riddler'', of all villains. Although you never encounter him directly, he manages to be a legitimately scary villain once you think about how some of the riddles were set up, especially the ones involving dead bodies. There is no way he could have predicted when and where those people would be killed by Joker's thugs, so the only explanation is that he murdered them and posed them there himself. He also gives a rather disturbing answer to the classic riddle: "What walks on four legs, then two legs, then three?" Dr. Young says it's a human being (crawls as an infant, walks on two legs as an adult, uses a cane in old age), but the actual answer is {{spoiler|a baby with its legs cut off who has been given a crutch.}} It's clear why he belongs at Arkham.

** Scarecrow also manages to be threatening due to the level of [[Mind Screw]] he pulls on Batman (and ''the player''). The encounters with him are some of the most memorable in the entire game.

* Speaking of, Dr. Wily falls under this. In ''[[Mega Man and Bass (Video Game)|Mega Man and Bass]]'', one of his creations, King, ''chopped Proto Man in half''. In ''[[Mega Man 9 (Video Game)|Mega Man 9]]'', he managed to con the world into thinking Dr. Light was after world domination, getting the good doctor arrested. And in ''[[Mega Man 10 (Video Game)|Mega Man 10]]'', {{spoiler|if not for Roll, he would've won}}. And this is just in the Classic series. In the ''X'' series, he is responsible for [[The Virus]] that causes much of the conflict. Plus, it's hinted that [[Back From the Dead|he may still be alive]]...

* ''[[Touhou]] Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object'':

* Act III of ''[[Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog]]'', when the titular [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]] takes off the kid gloves and decides to [[Murder the Hypotenuse]] in response to [[Smug Super|Captain Hammer's]] merciless taunting over the theft of his would-be girlfriend Penny. Subverted when, even with all the provocation in the world and his [[Arch Enemy]] helpless before him, he can't bring himself to pull the trigger. [[Double Subverted]] when Hammer turns the tables and the malfunctioning [[Death Ray]] explodes, handing Dr. Horrible the victory anyway.

* ''[[Whateley Universe]]'':

** Not to mention the time she was attacked by the [[Ultra Violent]] Bloodwolf. She used railway spikes to nail him to a tree, and used silver to burn "I attack little girls" into his chest.

** Hekate also gets credit, along with Don Sebastaino. {{spoiler|Hekate came perilously close to making Fey into her mind-slave, and actually killed Jade, who got better. Both she and Don were revealed to be rapists, and at a much higher level of villainy. While both ended up defeated, Hekate is now working for a A- List Supervillain, the Necromancer. He's not a proper A List or A+ List only by comparison to other Supervillains who kill a whole lot more people.}}

** The Decepticons Starscream, Blitzwing, and Lugnut also fall under this category. They aren't too bright (although Starscream has some moments), are very comical, and are each capable of single handedly defeating all 5 main Autobots without too much trouble in a straight fight.

*** Not to mention Swindle, an arms dealer based on [[But Wait! There's More!|Ron Popeil]] with hidden weaponry up the [[Unusual Euphemism|exhaust port]] and surprisingly sneaky and clever.

* The Decepticons from [[Transformers Generation One|the original ''Transformers'' cartoon]] were originally portrayed as goofy, incompetent villains who constantly lost to the Autobots every single time throughout the first two seasons, but from ''[[Transformers the Movie]]'' onwards, they actually began killing almost half the original Autobot cast! (out-of-universe, this was actually done by the writers [[Merchandise-Driven|just so they can make room for new characters, both 'Bot and 'Con alike)]] The third and final season, as with the Japanese sequels, actually portrayed all of the 'Cons as true villains.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'':

* The Bourbons were a minor noble family when they were chosen to lead France in the hope that they'd leave the other nobles alone to go about their business. Through a long string of political marriages they had gained direct control of about sixty percent of the country by the time of the revolution.

* Pretty much every time you read a phrase to the effect of "all factions agreed on X, because they KNEW he wouldn't do anything"-- you can be pretty sure major changes are ahead.

 

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[[Category:Villains]]

[[Category:Not So Harmless Villain]]