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Fashion Victim Villain: Difference between revisions
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Uh-oh. It seems we have a [[Fashion Victim Villain]] on our hands.
This trope comes into play whenever a villain decides to don an outrageous, over-the-top costume, usually replete with [[Colour-Coded for Your Convenience|Dark Colors]], [[Shoulders of Doom]] and [[Spikes of Villainy]], thinking it will make him look like a fearless, all-powerful [[Badass]]. Instead, it makes him look pitiable and ridiculous, if not slightly unhinged.
It's not hard to see why this should happen. Villainy, as a profession, tends to attract [[Large Ham|flamboyant personality types]]. Still, this is no excuse for dressing up as a [[Depraved Homosexual|gothic drag queen]] during the least appropriate times, and no amount of [[Super Strength|inhuman strength]], [[Kick the Dog|dog-kicking]], or [[Magnificent Bastard]]-ness can restore a villain's menace once it's been undercut by a move like this, at least most of the time. (Unless the villain happens to be a [[Monster Clown]], and the over-the-top costume and makeup is part of his/her schtick.)
A [[Fashion Victim Villain]] most often dresses in this manner during moments of triumph or when they're first meeting with the heroes (in a failed attempt to impress them). Sometimes they may dress like this unintentionally -- a radiation suit, designed for the very utilitarian purpose of protecting the villain, may have ridiculously large hips or a phallic helmet, or be colored with loud shades. Either way, one can expect the audience watching the show to [[WTH Costuming Department|chortle a bit]] upon seeing the villain's new threads. The heroes themselves may mock the villain for his lack of taste, but just as often will let it pass without comment (especially if they have [[Death Trap|other, more pressing matters]] on their minds). The villain's allies and [[Mooks|henchmen]] probably won't dare to even crack a smile around the villain (when he is around).
Of course, it was also stated in the Evil Overlord List #29, which stated "I will dress in bright and cheery colors, and so throw my enemies into confusion." Still, that's no excuse for not doing it ''well''.
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* If you're a female villain or [[Monster of the Week]] in ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', you will have a bad outfit. The rare exceptions are good guys turned into bad guys (Black Lady, Mistress 9) or the [[Big Bad]] (Galaxia, Nehellenia, Beryl), and even some of them have questionable tastes.
* Not a costume, exactly, but [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|the ridiculously over-the-top]] "Blue Eyes White Dragon Jet" that Seto Kaiba flies in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' series has definitely got to qualify for this trope. It gets plenty of fun poked at it in the ''Abridged Version''.
** Though, to do it justice, in the Manga it was a fully-functional Fighter Jet just painted to look like Blue-Eyes. You wouldn't be laughing when you found out that it still had all of its weaponry.
* ''[[Code Geass]] R2'': After seeing Lelouch's and Suzaku's new outfits after episode 21, the fanbase spent ''weeks'' snickering childishly. The actual outfits really aren't that bad, being designed by [[CLAMP]]... but... well, they... are... designed by CLAMP. Lelouch's outfit is the better one of the two, but the [[Nice Hat]] just pushes it past the "Pope/Not Pope" outfit threshold. Suzaku looks OK while wearing the cape, but then he takes it off and you see he has ''skin-tight shoulders''. The fact that their arms and legs are ''insanely long'' (there's a reason why fans call CLAMP's character's noodle people) doesn't help.
** A CLAMP artbook shows that the [[Nice Hat]] could have been worse. the original version looked like nothing so much as a kite; the hat he does wear in the show is merely the base of the original.
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* [[Smug Snake]] Shapiro Keats from ''[[Dancougar]]'' likes his purple eyeliner and has the fashion sense of [[David Bowie]].
* In [[Shiki]], if you are one of the titular [[Our Vampires Are Different|Shiki]], if you aren't a mook, you get a fabulous outfit. Tatsumi apparently has cat ears as expressive hair and an outfit which probably gets him a lot of willing female Shiki. Then there's the Shiki who apparently is Vampire Lady Gaga. Sunako has utterly insane hair and a Victorian dress, and Megumi's fashion fails could get a page of their own.
* In ''[[City Hunter]]'', there's an [[In-Universe]] example with one of the [[Monster of the Week|Villains Of The Week]]: after he managed to capture both Ryo Saeba and the girl he was protecting, a fashion designer, said girl accuses him of poor fashion taste upon seeing his clothes; this flusters him, as when they meet later after Ryo and the girl made their escape, he has put up ''more'' tacky clothes, and inevitably gets further mocked by the protagonists, to his embarrassment.
* ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' gives us Jake Martinez, who manages to be terrifying while looking like... Well, picture the phrase [http://thisissternbild.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/commie-tiger-bunny-12-78de0162-mkv_snapshot_07-02_2011-06-20_10-14-23.jpg "glam rock serial killer"].
* Envy of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', who's running around in a skirt, and a tanktop, and has his/her/its hair in what looks like a palm tree. First-Anime!Wrath is as bad or worse, since it's that same outfit on a ten-year old boy.
* Fuala Griffon from ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam|Victory Gundam]]'' thinks she rocks a look via using ''cat bells'' as earrings and putting on a pink spacesuit. She doesn't.
** Also, the Zanscare meetings become unintentionally hilarious when you see either grunts or commanders wearing really stupid-looking old-fashioned wigs. Even people who do realize the parallels between the Zanscare "fashion" and traditional looks associated to some officer posts are... weirded out, to say but politely.
* In the first ''[[Appleseed]]'' movie the officers of the Olympos Regular Army wear completely ridiculous teal uniforms.
* While not a ''[[Anti-Villain|villain]] per se'', at least not an outright one, Mello's outfits in ''[[Death Note]]'' are often bizarre, to say the least.
* When {{spoiler|Sugata}} joins the Glittering Crux in ''[[Star Driver]]'', he comes out wearing...''[http://www.japanator.com/elephant//ul/18986-annotated-anime-only-edition-winter-2011-week-11/stardriver23a-620x.jpg this.]'' Even in a show full of [[Camp Straight]], and bad fashion choices, his outfit just goes beyond.
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** And Mysterio, who wears what appears to be an upside-down goldfish bowl on his head. This is especially hilarious because he's supposed to be a [[Master of Illusion]], yet he apparently has never thought that it might be a good idea to create the illusion that he isn't ''wearing an upside-down goldfish bowl on his head''. Eventually they caught on, and when his illusionary gas was enhanced by Dr. Doom, he went around town with the rest of [[Spider-Man]]'s [[Rogues Gallery]] in various disguises - a metal band, a punk band, and a schoolboy - with the [[Sexy Man, Instant Harem|rest of them as schoolgirls]]. Of course, they didn't know how they appeared.
*** A charming cartoonist named Katie Cook has [[Lampshaded]] [http://katiecandraw.typepad.com/.a/6a00e550a9fd7d88340120a6310488970b-pi the fishbowl effect.]
*** The exact same thing was done in the first ''Spider-Man'' Playsation game, if "What If?" mode was activated.
*** It seems that everyone has made fun of Mysterio's headgear - ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'' has Spidey bringing it up if he's part of your team on the helicarrier, for example. In fact, "fishbowl for a head" is Spidey's ''favorite'' method of addressing him.
*** They fixed that in ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' where he loses the fishbowl and instead just has a vaguely head-shaped cloud of fog drifting above the metal device he wears around his shoulders. It's actually rather creepy but still, the beads he wears around his left hand look kind of silly.
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** Really, Riddler spent the entire movie getting steadily more ridiculous, culminating in a costume containing five thousand pounds of glitter.
** Mr. Freeze from ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' wears a bathrobe. With polar bear slippers. [[Franchise Killer|Just another nail in the series coffin.]]
* Xerxes in ''[[300]]'' wears a gold cape and speedo and is covered in gold chains and facial piercings. The facial piercings are a shared trait among the Persians, while the speedo seems to be a universal trait in the film's warped version of reality.
* Ming the Merciless in ''Flash Gordon'', especially in [[Flash Gordon (film)|the 1980 movie]].
* Averted in ''[[Labyrinth]]'': clothes that would look ridiculous on a lesser man actually look pretty spectacular on [[David Bowie]].
* In its deconstruction of superheros, ''[[Watchmen (film)|Watchmen]]'' features a lot of snide comments about the intentionally silly costumes that heroes and villains wear. Veidt's bright purple-and-gold suit and mask are overtly compared to Studio 54 excess.
* Todd Spengo from ''[[Mom and Dad Save The World]]''. Then again... everyone on the planet of Spengo has bad fashion sense.
* Evilene in the Sidney Lumet version of ''[[The Wiz]]'' wore a large, garish-looking dress which, like many items in the movie, seemed to be made of garbage.
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* The [[Big Bad]] from ''[[Warriors of Virtue]]'' definitely qualifies as this. And in a movie about ninja kangaroos no less.
* Darius Sayle in ''[[Alex Rider|Stormbreaker]]''. Because nothing says "scary villain" like Mickey Rourke in a white pimp coat and Jack Sparrow makeup.
* Gozer from [[Ghostbusters]].
* [[Megamind]] plays with this a lot, as the [[Villain Protagonist]] wears ever more ridiculous giant collared outfits. He's [[Genre Savvy]] enough to know that the key to being a super-villain is "PRESENTATION!" (cue Guns N' Roses).
* Matthew Patel in ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' is dressed pretty ridiculously, to the point where someone actually thinks he's dressed like a pirate. Patel responds defensively:
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== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'': in the Punyverse story arc, the Evil Overlord wears lipstick and goes pantsless. Even his minions consider him a walking fashion disaster, and some of them are dumb enough to call him up on it.
* Black Mage from ''[[
* Galgarion, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[RPG World]]'', has a designer that does this to him (the comic largely being an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series, we are ''not'' spared the Kuja outfit).
* Parodied in ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]'', as Hitlerella [http://nonadventures.com/2011/02/05/joke-and-mirrors/ points out] the possible downsides of a [[Darker and Edgier]] costume change to Jokerella.
{{quote|'''Wonderella''': Holy crap! This bomb may have a few seconds left... but those ''assless chaps''? Those are '''forever'''.}}
* ''[[Homestuck]]'': [[Royal Brat|Eridan Ampora]]. Bright purple [[Ominous Opera Cape]] with a [[High Collar of Doom]], blue [[Scarf of Asskicking]], black shirt, blue-and-black striped pants, thick [[Hipster]] glasses, purple hair highlight, and [[Bling of War|an absurd amount of rings]]. [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004308 It turns out how you'd expect it to]. It appears he's trying to emulate the appearance of his [[Famous Ancestor]] Dualscar, but he's trying just a bit too hard at it. It's also [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|not the only thing he's trying too hard at]].
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